There are entire books out there on product photography and how best to take in-kind photographs of jewelry or scorpions. But drugs? “We had to try how to photograph drugs,” says Tibor Harrach and laughs softly. The fifty-eight-year-old has peeled a black rubber glove over his right hand and is reaching into the light tent set up in his office. From a transparent, bullet-shaped plastic case, he tips powdered sugar-like powder onto a black plastic pedestal and uses a narrow spatula to shape it under the lens: cocaine, allegedly.
Julia Schaaf
Editor in the “Life” department of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sunday newspaper.
A Tuesday in July, almost 7:30 p.m., the social workers have just left the counseling center “Vista” towards the end of the day. For the pharmacist Harrach, the most important work step of the day now begins: the documentation of the 13 drug samples that were handed in this afternoon during the “Drugchecking Berlin” surgery. One cocaine, two amphetamines (i.e. speed), four ecstasy tablets, one MDMA in powder form, one LSD, three cathinone, one cannabis, which has probably been mixed with synthetic cannabinoids.