Sarka Vancurova
Photography
her story for my graduation project.
last times she found it hard to stay sober.
on the bed, they were cared of and treated like humans.
she hated and was ashamed to do this job.
She always felt safer to go out with him.
getting high took place, Their home was always kept clean and very welcoming to strangers.
this time she lost her appartment
and lots of weight.
in her apartment.
because this time Bertram left her when police inspected their apartments for drugs handling.
At this time many people came to live in their place and it went out of the hand.
Wilma had to seek a help from women shelter in Rotterdam.
Usually one of them was at sleep and the other awake. raymond went often at night
to cycle around the city finding stuff by the garbage.
His flat was filled with all things he found on the street.
the side of Raymond.
Project Wilma is my graduation work for one of the book projects in documentary photography, made between 2009, 2011 and 2017 in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, where I was studying till 2010. Most of the work was done on a film rolls yet at that time.
It is an intimate story about the life battle with drugs and their influence on life. It is a visual portrait about a older women called Wilhelmina Janssen whose battle with drugs was accompanying her and her boyfriend’s lives. She comes from a very decent working class family in Limburg. Her mother owned a bordel hotel and her father was a wood worker. When she was was young she started to sell and take drugs, expecially methamphetamine, speed and heroin.
When she was 27 years old, she became pregnant. She had stopped all drugs and smoking to gave a healthy birth to her son Trijan, who sadly passed at 18 months from crib death, which was unexplainable. His sudden death almost took her life. When Trijan died, she tried to suicide herself few times and had 28 overdoses from heroin. By the last one, doctor warned her, if she will do it again, he will lock her up. Since than, she never tried to suicide herself again.
It is an intimate story about the life battle with drugs and their influence on life. It is a visual portrait about a older women called Wilhelmina Janssen whose battle with drugs was accompanying her and her boyfriend’s lives. She comes from a very decent working class family in Limburg. Her mother owned a bordel hotel and her father was a wood worker. When she was was young she started to sell and take drugs, expecially methamphetamine, speed and heroin.
When she was 27 years old, she became pregnant. She had stopped all drugs and smoking to gave a healthy birth to her son Trijan, who sadly passed at 18 months from crib death, which was unexplainable. His sudden death almost took her life. When Trijan died, she tried to suicide herself few times and had 28 overdoses from heroin. By the last one, doctor warned her, if she will do it again, he will lock her up. Since than, she never tried to suicide herself again.
As a very elegant and beautiful woman, Wilma had many boyfirends with whom she shared her life around drugs. As she often brought it up, “drugs saved her life” that became unbearable after Trijan’s death.
When I met Wilma in 2009, she was dating a 10 years younger guy Bertram, who was also a drug addict. That time, they were just smoking heroin and coccain, never shooting in the veins anymore after all overdoses. They tried to manage their life by cleaning the streets and working in the construction to earn extra income besides their social welfare money.
Wilma’s health was worsenning when she found out she had hepatitis C and began to be on methadone programme.
When I met Wilma in 2009, she was dating a 10 years younger guy Bertram, who was also a drug addict. That time, they were just smoking heroin and coccain, never shooting in the veins anymore after all overdoses. They tried to manage their life by cleaning the streets and working in the construction to earn extra income besides their social welfare money.
Wilma’s health was worsenning when she found out she had hepatitis C and began to be on methadone programme.
In her life, she earned lots of money by selling drugs, but money made her never happy she told me. She also helped two families from Curacao and many others. I spent lots of time with them working on this project till 2011, when I lost contact for sometime till 2017.
This time I found Wilma with a different man, also drug smoker, and in a women shelter, where she lived pernamently.
This time I found Wilma with a different man, also drug smoker, and in a women shelter, where she lived pernamently.
At the end of 2011, Bertram left Wilma for another woman and went to live in France with her. Wilma never heard of him again.
We picked up the story for one more time. and my article was published in the Rotterdam newspaper. Wilma was still fighting the drug addiction , but it seemed like she was using much less while she was in the shelter where she was not allowed to use it. Her boyfriend Raymond took care of her, bringing her to his flat for the weekends where they smoked together, but only when Raymond had money to buy them.
This time Wilma began to drink beers more than she smoked drugs. My time with her was never wasted. I enjoyed very much listening to her streetwise lessons and stories of incredible drug win and lost journey. Despite all the drug addictions and overdose adventures, she doesn’t regret a thing in her life, so as I never regret any minute spent with her .
I am so grateful , and it is my honor to be the only one with whom she shared her journey. She told me: Finally I have found a young woman to whom I can tell the truth...We lost each other again, which now seems forever, but I will never forget the dearest Wilma, all her and Raymond’s and Bertram’s kindness to me.
We picked up the story for one more time. and my article was published in the Rotterdam newspaper. Wilma was still fighting the drug addiction , but it seemed like she was using much less while she was in the shelter where she was not allowed to use it. Her boyfriend Raymond took care of her, bringing her to his flat for the weekends where they smoked together, but only when Raymond had money to buy them.
This time Wilma began to drink beers more than she smoked drugs. My time with her was never wasted. I enjoyed very much listening to her streetwise lessons and stories of incredible drug win and lost journey. Despite all the drug addictions and overdose adventures, she doesn’t regret a thing in her life, so as I never regret any minute spent with her .
I am so grateful , and it is my honor to be the only one with whom she shared her journey. She told me: Finally I have found a young woman to whom I can tell the truth...We lost each other again, which now seems forever, but I will never forget the dearest Wilma, all her and Raymond’s and Bertram’s kindness to me.