Teju Cole (b.1975) is an American writer, photographer, and art historian. Since 2015, he has written the monthly column ‘On Photography’ for the New York Times Magazine.

Here is a image from the on photography segment, named “A Chronicle of Life and Pain in Upstate New York”

(From: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/21/magazine/a-chronicle-of-life-and-pain-in-upstate-new-york.html)

 

The reason why I chose this photo is because I have a series of photo relating to drug as well. I am amazed by how he shows the things I was attempting to convey in just one image. From this image, the focus is apparently the mother, however, I do notice that the older kid of her is smoking, possibly impacted by her. Her younger kid is naked and looking pure and innocent. I made me worry about what this baby may become in the future. Anyways, I really do enjoy this image and the impact it is attempting to make. If you are interested, please , check out my series addiction as well.

 

More images/essay by Teju Cole can be found here:

https://www.nytimes.com/column/on-photography

photography