Bongo Fever by: Chien-Chi Chang

I chose this multimedia photo story mostly on a whim. Since Chien-Chi Chang was presented yesterday in class, I came across this photo story and decided to give it a try. I liked what I learned in class about Chang in class. When I stumbled across this by chance (found it on the Magnum in Motion website) I decided that I was going to do it on this. The title was the first thing that pulled me in because I didn't read the description.
From a young age, in school we are taught that drugs are bad. I've always found stories about drug users very intriguing. I've read far too many books about drug users and talked to a few drug users too. Their stories are all interesting to me, because I've never done any drugs (not that I ever plan on it since I know there's no turning back once you do).
I think Chien-Chi Chang did a wonderful job on this. He captured the sights and sounds perfectly. If you are on the squeamish side, then this will definitely bring that out in you because of the photos of syringes being used. It's very... not brutal (well, I guess in a way it is), but more audacious than anything.
The sounds make you feel as if you are there. It starts of with sounds of city-ish life. You can hear people huffing & puffing out of various drugs, along with heavy breathing. Three lines stood out to me most: "Everyone wants to stop, but no one can." "Your addiction is every day." and "Trust your friends." The last quote was talking about having to trust your friends when you use the same syringe as them, and basically hope for the best that they're not infected with HIV.
Something that caught my eye in this photo story is the use of photos that make it look more like a stop motion (so continuous shots). There were also videos put in and that was good, because it wasn't over done either. There was some text, but mostly used as subtitles so you can understand when a person was speaking and what they were saying.
The photo story starts off with a scene of people outside during the night. Then dives directly into images of people using syringes, and it just now occurred to me (after watching it for a third time) that this video is just as much about HIV as it is about drugs, since in this case they go hand in hand. At the very end, it shows you how the syringes are just everywhere on the ground and there are slugs crawling (for lack of a better word) over and under the syringes.