SOCIAL REALISM PART 5

Meet these two friendly and sympathic gentlemen and sellers of the street magazine =Oslo and longtime friends.

Hans Erik (to the left) was begging for many years and started to sell =Oslo with the "help" of the police. They saw him begging, took him to the station dozen times to register him and drove him to =Oslo telling him to start selling and stop begging. He was one of the first sellers, and now he is registered as salesman nr 28. He started with drugs when he was 20 years old and is now on methadone, He use some drugs beside. He sits in the same place that he before begged. He prefer this place since he has problems with his legs and it is hard to stand for long periods. He also tells me that it is hard to sit here and expose himself since everyone understands that he has an addiction. But the magazine has changed his life. He has not been in prison since he started to sell and his life is now much better in every way.

Eddy and I found out that we have something in common. We are both 47 years old:-) He started with pot when he was 11 years and other drugs when he was 13. He went through a major crisis when he got divorced at the age 40, and tested heroine. He can't believe that he was so stupid. All his friends told him not to. He is now on metadone and he too takes some drugs beside. He says that selling the magazine has changed his life and the biggest change is that he now meet "normale" people that he can talk to, he lives a regular life and feels better about himself.

We talked for a while and I found their long friendship very touching. I promised that I would stop by tomorrow and buy the celebration book with brilliant shots from Oslo. The photos in their magazine are superb so I'm looking forward to it.