Toxic Narcotic Documentary
The Toxic Narcotic Documentary started in 1991 just before I started dating my husband Will Toxic. Toxic Narcotic played their first show in 1989. They are one of the most prominent bands in the 2nd wave of Boston punk (the first being early 80’s bands such as SSD, FU’s and The Freeze) and laid the foundation for the resurgence of DIY in a city whose punk scene was all but dead at the time.
In this documentary I focus on my role in the Toxic Narcotic family. Most of my images are slices of the gritty, dark, sometimes cramped life behind the scenes, not the ones under glossy stage lights and bright flashes. “Toxic” began in basements, churches and DIY spaces and chose to play in these places over many chances to “sign” their lives away, until they eventually outgrew their chosen surroundings.
My photographic style has changed over the years, but I’ve always desired to keep the images contrasty and gritty to reflect the appropriate mood. Almost all my early images were shot on 3200 without flash and printed on Oriental Seagull grade 3 with additional filters. Later, due to technical reasons with film developer, I switched to different films and began using flash, but I tried to remain true to the vision of close quarters in tour vans, weeks of ripe touring, dingy basements, squats and DIY shows and what it is like to live nearly 2 decades doing this. This is my family.
In this documentary I focus on my role in the Toxic Narcotic family. Most of my images are slices of the gritty, dark, sometimes cramped life behind the scenes, not the ones under glossy stage lights and bright flashes. “Toxic” began in basements, churches and DIY spaces and chose to play in these places over many chances to “sign” their lives away, until they eventually outgrew their chosen surroundings.
My photographic style has changed over the years, but I’ve always desired to keep the images contrasty and gritty to reflect the appropriate mood. Almost all my early images were shot on 3200 without flash and printed on Oriental Seagull grade 3 with additional filters. Later, due to technical reasons with film developer, I switched to different films and began using flash, but I tried to remain true to the vision of close quarters in tour vans, weeks of ripe touring, dingy basements, squats and DIY shows and what it is like to live nearly 2 decades doing this. This is my family.
