Trish & Lowell

Trish and Lowell share a one bedroom unit in a public housing block in Woolloomooloo, an inner city suburb of Sydney.

Lowell had been living with Trish for about 3 weeks when I met him in nearby Kings Cross. He was quick to explain that their relationship was not a physical one, but rather one of codependence.

Previously living on the street, Lowell moved in with Trish after her partner was sent to prison for drug possession. Hoping to get herself cleaned up before his release, Trish believed that having Lowell around, who limited his drug use to marijuana, would help her to stay away from the harder drugs. She dreamed of moving out of the city and to the coast with her partner upon his release, to settle down and reconnect with her teenage son who she had lost contact with.

An almost constant consumption of a variety of drugs, coupled with Lowell's love of telling tall tales and Trish's waning patience for hearing them, created a wildly tumultuous atmosphere inside the small unit. As much as there was appreciation for each others company and the security they provided one another, there were also furious arguments which often became physical.

Trish and Lowell's relationship is like many, consisting of give and take, but it exists at the extreme ends of human interaction; it's a friendship forged on the fringe.