Dan's the man to normalise smoking
Friday, July 13, 2007 
I spent the afternoon with photographer, musician and designer Dan Donovan. As well as being a smoker, Dan is a committed Forest supporter whose dedication to the cause was recently tested by a nationwide tour that took him from Cambridgeshire to Cornwall via Yorkshire, Kent and Oxfordshire (to name a few).
Phase one of the project will be published online next month. It features the portraits of no fewer than 90 smokers, many of them Forest supporters. They include an artist, engineer, musician, landlord, student, coastguard, tobacconist, doctor and mental health worker. Actor Neil Morrissey is featured; so too a survivor of HMS Sir Galahad, the landing ship that was sunk during the Falklands War.
Each portrait was taken in an enclosed public space just before the ban was introduced, the point being that if they did so now each and every one would be committing an offence. The experience has left its mark on Dan who told me: "I was struck by the common feeling of helplessness. The government wants people to believe that all smokers are addicted and want to give up. But the people I met enjoy smoking and resent the stigma and discrimination that has sprung up.
"The people who have contributed to this project come from all walks of life. They are sick of their habit being demonised and they jumped at the opportunity to counteract the denormalisation of smoking."
Reader Comments (5)
Simon, I've become a bit of an armchair critic in recent posts, and I apologise for that. I can't promise it won't happen again as it arises from the incredible frustration I feel about the bans.
This morning I feel more positive and would like to congratulate Dan on using his creative talents and travelling so far in his efforts to 're-normalise' us, the new outcasts.
I would love to see Dan quoted in the national press, as he has put his points across so well in the Peterborough paper.
Some thoughts that I hope might be constructive:
I wonder how many MPs feel 'stabbed in the back' as the one in the second article did. Is there a way that Forest can rally more support from MPs across the board?
Also, bearing in mind what Dan has said, I would like to see a campaign to challenge the 'smoking-related deaths' phrase - as the public perceive this as meaning that any number tagged to that phrase is a direct reflection of deaths caused by smoking, when it simply isn't. It is incredibly misleading and lies right at the root of the hysteria.
Could Forest mount such a campaign?
The other thing I would like to see challenged is the 'smoking causes....' statement. We all know that correlation does not equal cause, so how do they get away with this?
I feel strongly that these factors are at the heart of the problem, and that to publicly discredit these would begin to pull down the antis' house of cards.
I would be very interested to hear your thoughts on this.
Congratulations again to Dan. I hope we will see your work gain a very wide audience.
p.s. for 'armchair critic' read 'grumpy old sod'.
Apologies, again.
Hardly a chance to normalise with comments from the article like this
"One of my aims was to capture smokers' final moments while they still have the freedom to smoke in public enclosed spaces
It's over, defeat. Shame.
It's not over - it's only just begun if your brave enough to stand up and be counted!
I'm afraid this is only the start of it, Tobacco is a herb,over the last few years the drugs companies have been pharmaprinting all foods, herbs and plants that can have a medicinal effect on the human body. In other words they own them, herbalists are in fear of losing their businesses,and medical information has already dissappeared from the labels on essential oils due to new legislation.
Herbal nicotene = bad,
Synthetic nicotene in smoking cessation products = good.
Check out Codex Alimentarius from WHO