Nika De Carlo says, "I am a survivor of the opioid crisis. My in-process series, See You In Heaven, started as a self-documentary. My camera first became a tool to examine and reason with myself and my addiction, which grew into a means of comfort, escape, denial, and desperation. While photographing myself, I turned my camera onto another person who was also entrapped in it: my partner.

I chose to photograph ourselves together as an attempt to cope, to better understand the heart of the disease, and most importantly, to realize the power it had on us. Through photographing myself and my partner repetitively, I created a visual diary that traced the shifts of our intimacy and distance, which seemingly paralleled with our relapses and attempts at recovery. As the series grew, I found myself discovering a common theme: a sense of waiting and loss. In the manipulative heart of addiction, love for another is overpowered by this, emptying and refilling oneself with a venomous weight of loss of control.

By creating these photographs, I found myself gaining some of that control back. After years of photographing our shared experiences, I am now continuing the series to also record our shared recovery. Laced with fragments of the past and hope for the future, See You In Heaven is a tender and honest depiction of our relationship with each other, the grip of addiction, and the journey that comes after."

Nika De Carlo is an American photographer currently living in New York City. She received her BFA in Photography from Pratt Institute in 2015, where she also had a concentration in Filmmaking. De Carlo’s work examines relationship dynamics, immunity, emotional transformation, and self-discovery, with an emphasis on self-portraiture and photographing those closest to her.

She is currently working on the completion of her latest series, See You in Heaven, a 5-year long documentation of her relationship with her partner throughout their shared opiate addiction and recovery. Her latest film, Sick in Paradise, is a psychological short inspired by her childhood experiences with mental health issues. It is set to release later this year.

Career highlights:SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2015 "While We Were Dreaming", Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY.

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2020 "Still Cities", Online Group Exhibition, Czech Center New York."Fantastic Film Show", LightBox Photographic Gallery, Astoria, OR.
"The Road", JKC Gallery, Trenton, NJ.
"Isolation", Millepiani, Rome, Italy.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS/FEATURED WORK

2020 "See You in Heaven", Fraction Magazine, Issue 130, Jan. 2020."Each Person a Home", The Photographic Journal, Mar. 01, 2020.
"Addiction During the Pandemic", MUSEÉ Magazine, May 28, 2020.
"See You in Heaven," Analog Forever Magazine, Issue 02, Jun. 2020.
“I Can Hear the Road Call” Zine, Jeff Smudde, Aug. 01, 2020.
"Chosen Vessel", The Photographic Journal, Aug. 10, 2020. 


IMAGES FOR SALE (Contact artist directly for sales)

How Much is Too Much? - 
11"H x 17"W
Digital archival print
$350 framed
Edition of 10
Signed on back


Self Prescription (27th Birthday) - 11"H x 17"W
Digital archival print
$350 framed
Edition of 10
Signed on back


Codependent - 11"H x 17"W
Digital archival print
$350 framed
Edition of 10
Signed on back

Contact: Nika De Carlo
nikadecarlo@gmail.com
Website: www.nikadecarlo.com
p 732.501.9868
@nikathedreamer
/ https://www.instagram.com/nikathedreamer/?hl=en