Kamloops photographer puts street life in focus

CONTENT ADVISORY/GRAPHIC PHOTOGRAPHY

Scotty Larsen is a local photographer who has a passion for photographing street life wherever he is.

Some of his most recent shots include photos of individuals injecting intravenous drugs. One photo he took shows a woman injecting directly into her neck. He shared these photos to a local community photography group which raised some controversy.

The photos were taken down temporarily but Larsen wrote to the Facebook group to have the photos posted back.

“I think they shocked a lot of people,” Larsen says. “It’s raw and it’s real life.”

Larsen, who works as a heavy equipment operator and does street photography in his spare time, has also dealt with addiction and being homeless in the past.

On his day off, Larsen says he drives around looking for people to take photos of. It’s not something he recommends considering the heavy content.

On this day when he took the photos, he saw a group of people near Yew Street on the North Shore.

“When I drove by I saw them getting ready and I stopped to talk to them for a second and said I would like to take pictures of them doing this,” he says.

Larsen says it was his first time seeing someone inject directly into their neck. He also asked the group if they ever worry about fentanyl.

“They worry about it pretty heavily but the addiction has got a hold of them so hard that it’s a roll of dice every time you stick a needle in your arm,” he says.

Larsen says he stayed with the group for about 10 minutes to make sure nobody overdosed after he left.

“This is all stuff that people don’t see or they do see and they are just blind to it,” he says. “It’s all blurry to (people) and I just put it into focus.”

EDITOR'S NOTE: Photographs were stylized by the photographer.

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