Review of “The Ninth Floor”

Click on the picture to watch the photo documentary now!

ABOUT

The Ninth Floor is a photo essay by photojournalist Jessica Dimmock that chronicles the lives of three residents of a ninth-floor apartment once rented by artist Joe Smith. These residents of 4. W. 22nd St in New York City are all are drug addicts.

The first shot after the title is introduced

For three years, Dimmock followed these residents and showcased intimate, dark, and life-changing moments in their lives. She was with them through their eviction from the apartment, their struggle to get clean, imprisonment, and their incredible fight to survive the plight of addiction.

INTRIGUE

Drug addiction stories tend to be powerful because of the circumstances and actions involved. However, the perspectives viewers get are from a very outsider point-of-view. It is usually about looking into the addicts’ world and then looking down upon them for the lives they have created for themselves. Dimmock’s piece goes deeper than that.

Looking out into the world.

From the first image the audience sees after the title is introduced, it becomes interesting. Whether it was the fact that she spent three years with the residents or that she used a camera and not a pen, her work takes you on an internal journey with the addicts – one that does not look at their lives, but into and through them.

The view from the inside out.

The audience goes through the initial drug intake and then to private moments with the addicts. We see them candidly in the lowest points in their lives and then in their greatest elation. It is unlike any other story of addiction because it puts you in the apartment, on the street, in the bedroom, in the shower, and at the hospital with the former residents of the apartment. That is what makes it so compelling.

“I guess the junkie life was what I wanted. I had really no other aspirations. I just never really tried anything. The only thing I really wanted to do was, you know, get loaded.” – Dionn

THE IMAGES

Particular aspects were incredibly noticeable and poignant in The Ninth Floor. For one, Dimmock has a powerful motif of eyes.

The gazes are haunting. There is an emotion that need not be written but can be powerfully felt through the images.

A lot of blurred photos are used as well. This choice by Dimmock captures the essence of the addicts’ unstable lives.

A blurred image of Jessie was sequenced in between clear pictures of her.

It is the way she sparingly uses the images throughout the piece that makes the moments when they do appear most effective. It conveys the idea that these addicts are not living static lives, they are caught in a whirlwind, one they both can and cannot escape.

The story is set up with two parts – one follows the character named Jessie and the other follows a couple, Dionn and Rachel. Both are different and the same.

Jessie hospitalized after coming back to drugs

They are all addicts but are struggling with different problems, and their endings are different. There is a plot to their stories. A beginning, a middle,

Dionn and Rachel's happy moments

and end are shown with a lingering tone of hope.

Dionn and Rachel's violent moments

“Sometimes its scary, like I think I’m OD’ing. There’s many times where I’ve done it, I’ve shot and I’m like, ‘Wow this might be it.’ I think I’ve caught myself out of dying many times. I’ve had my phone in my hand getting ready to dial 911.” – Dionn

TECHNIQUES

Dimmock was in the room when the addicts were taking the drugs, having sex, zoning out, everything. She was with them in the shower, in the bathroom, and on the street. There was no place she avoided entering. The audience thus goes with the characters wherever they go and not a moment is left unnoticed.

After coming home to her mother and trying to become clean, Jessie began a downward spiral again.

The music definitely played an important role in this piece, as it does in any other visual presentation. The most interesting was the organ. Initially a haunting organ plays a peculiar melody that opens the audience into their world. This choice for an organ as an opening sound is interesting in that it immediately sets up the eerie mood for The Ninth Floor.

A light/dark juxtaposition is also considered in Dimmock’s work. The viewer sees the light from the outside from the dark interior of the apartment or the light on someone’s face in comparison to the black surrounding him/her.

Dion looking out

At one point, the picture is taken from the inside looking out so it is as if the audience is peering out into the light with a resident from the apartment. For a moment, it seems, the viewer is standing where Dionn or Jesse is and can see the world as so distant from the interior of the ninth floor apartment.

WHO

Jessica Dimmock did photography and audio. Dimmock is originally from New York City and went to Long Island University where she received her master’s degree in education. However, three years after working in education, she left it to follow photography and graduated from the International Center of Photography’s program in Documentary Photography and Photojournalism. Dimmock’s book, The Ninth Floor, was published in 2007 in Italy and the USA. The project was created in collaboration with MediaStorm and Contrasto.

MediaStorm, according to its website was, “Originally founded in 1994 at the University of Missouri School of Journalism, MediaStorm relaunched in March of 2005 with a focus on creating cinematic narratives for distribution across a variety of platforms.”

“Human beings are inherently good. We learn bad.” – Dionn

Dionn with his daughter, Matilda - the reason why, he says, he is now clean