Photo Journal Monday: Charley Neisner
© Charley Neisner
With Others If Possible
Images and Text by Charley Neisner
My name is Charley Neisner, I’m an Apache Native and photographer from Western Massachusetts. I explore where I’m from, my culture as a Native American, and the different aspects that weave those two major parts of life together. One of the factors in my work is addiction. Massachusetts and the Native American community as a whole have a major opioid crisis happening, I question the why behind this. My writing is just as important to this work as the images I make. I tell stories with images, to explain what happened here, why I was here, and who was there with me that cannot be here today.
© Charley Neisner
Growing up we didn’t have many places to gather together as a group of friends. We ended up hanging out in cemeteries or if the weather wasn’t good, or when it got too dark we hung out at the mall. As we got older and most of us had jobs or various incomes of sorts, people would start to throw parties in the local motels. At the time, we thought of this as the fanciest way that we could be partying. We weren’t just partying in people's parent’s houses anymore, we had a hotel that was seen as all our own, where we could do whatever we wanted until the 9 am checkout that is.
© Charley Neisner
Certain people changed, some for the better and some for the worse. I tried to remain on the ‘better’ side. I guess as more time passed, and the separation between those two groups became greater, people fell into different times. The addictions became a lot more prominent and started to change everyone’s lives forever. The friend groups had to adjust to people coming and going. No one was really questioning if it was normal to have so many friends die.
View more of Chaley’s work on his website or his Instagram
© Charley Neisner
