by Michael Ackerman
(click title to see)
The series "Smoke" came into being through the friendship between Ackerman (1967) and Benjamin, a singer in an obscure band called "Smoke." Benjamin was a junkie infected by AIDS. "He was a fragile, violent man. I visited him in Gabbagetown, a town in Atlanta. The first night I stayed there I found Benjamin on the floor unconscious surrounded by photos, clothes, magazines, drugs and other baggage from daily life. I put him to bed and went outside. I found a place isolated and lost in time. There was one shop, a large cemetery, an old cotton mill and among them some children who seemed older than their age. Almost nothing happened in the time that I walked around. Still there was something in the air, and perhaps that is what photography is about, that what you can not hold on to.
The series carries the title "Smoke," not only as tribute to Benjamin who died this year, but also because I had the feeling that in Gabbagetown I was continually looking at things that would disappear."
The series carries the title "Smoke," not only as tribute to Benjamin who died this year, but also because I had the feeling that in Gabbagetown I was continually looking at things that would disappear."
