Discarded Drug Baggies
© Dan GiannopoulosDiscarded Drug Baggies is a three year long project mapping public drug use in South East London through the collection of tiny zip-lock bags that contained a variety illegal substances.
The baggies, branded with interesting imagery; from Bruce Lee to Bob Marley, Bulldogs to Playboy Bunnies, litter the streets of London. Artifacts of social gatherings, pinpoints of illicit acts, remnants of good times, and markers of addiction.
More than 400 baggies were collected mapped and photographed across three South East London boroughs, forming a large fine art collage and individual enlargements of various different baggie designs at various stages of degradation.
These markers to plot areas of prolific drug activity and attempt to ascertain whether any patterns emerge, whether those patterns pertain to the frequency of specific designs in specific places, and whether a specific design is more prevalent in a specific area. What areas and days and times of year baggies were found more or less frequently?
The project draws attention equally to the striking aesthetics of the baggies when enlarged; the branding, the remnants of drugs inside, and the level of degradation to the bag itself; with enlargements showing every dirty detail of the bag and asking questions about its history and in turn the history of those who consumed its contents.
click to view the complete set of images in the archive
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