Rooms With a View Of Addiction's Toll

Photographer Jessica Dimmock only recently turned 30, but she's already done work for magazines such as Fortune, Time and Newsweek, as well as for the New York Times.

Four years ago, when she began studying photojournalism at the International Center of Photography in New York, a drug dealer approached her on the street and offered to be the subject of one of her school assignments. That led her to a whole new world that eventually became the topic for a series titled "The Ninth Floor," part of which is now on show at the Randall Scott Gallery off Logan Circle. She spoke to us about that project from her apartment in Brooklyn.

I spent three evenings with this guy, and on the third evening, he said, "I just need to make one more stop." And we go to this beautiful building, in a very wealthy neighborhood, and he said, "You're never going to believe it. The scene in here is really crazy" -- and this is kind of where "The Ninth Floor" begins. There was this apartment, which had been controlled by a guy for 30-something years -- a former millionaire. And he had allowed a couple of addicts to move into spare bedrooms, and by the time I met him, there were 12 or 15 people on a given night staying there. And everyone was a user, and no one worked.

I originally went there because this man had brought me, but he was later arrested, and I've never seen him again. But because I had been introduced by him, I went back about a month later and brought some pictures I had taken, and they really liked them. And they said, "You can come here anytime you want, and take pictures." So I did.

The apartment's still there, but they were evicted that June.

When they were evicted, I focused on a couple of individuals and their specific stories. This is a photograph of Jessie, the person I got closest to. After they were kicked out of the house they didn't have any place to live. And in the winter, they would find stairwells to sleep in. This is in a really nice building in the Union Square area, and they would go into the stairwell at night and sleep.

She is an addict -- primarily heroin, but cocaine and crack as well. She started using about 10 years ago, and has had a really bad run of it ever since.

-- Interview conducted and condensed by Blake Gopnik