NEWSLETTER

PHOTOS BY DAVID GILLANDERS
INTERVIEW BY JAMES KNIGHT

Vice: Did taking photos replace the hole quitting fighting left in your life?

David Gillanders: Not really, I still fight. And I still take photos. They are both addictive though.

How did your early work documenting street life in Glasgow translate into your later work in Russia and here in Ukraine.

Without sounding like a wanker, it’s a fascination in humanity. Anyone who makes documentary photography has to have a sense of that otherwise they are liars or not in the right fucking job.

How did you come across the children who you documented in the Ukraine?

By accident to an extent. I was shooting a group of children under similar circumstances in Russia that they refer to over there as “eesprizorniki”. While I was there the Russians kept telling me about the kids that were literally living and dying in caves with dead dogs in their own shit, piss and vomit whacked out on drugs twenty four hours a day. Turns out they were right.

Was it as bad as you imagined?

Worse. The most common drug they use is the core of a nasal inhaler which they mix with vinegar and then pull through a cigarette filter. The resulting compound is injected and opiates the kid but is extremely addictive. I have no idea how they worked out this would have any effect but within weeks of use it can bend bones and cause massive nervous and immune system breakdown. None of these kids have much chance of making it past 20 and they know that so destroying yourself isn’t such a big deal.

Was there a single image that resonates from your time there?

There are too many but there was one kid who all of the times I have been out there I could see was getting progressively worse but wouldn’t let me take his photo. The last time I was there he beckoned me over and it was clear he didn’t have long. He couldn’t even talk but motioned that I could photograph him. He died later that week.

Does the government give these kids any aid?

There are Catholic priests who help them with a soup kitchen and minor medication but in the eyes of the government they don’t really exist.

How do you desensitize yourself from the experience of witnessing that on a daily basis?

You can’t.



FEEL THE DARKNESS | 1 | 2 |

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