Meet Yasmin. Yasmin is 19 years old and has never smoked cigarettes before. She’s experimented smoking and now wanted to try smoking cigarettes to see what they were like. What followed was an hour long shoot where I film Yasmin smoking a total of 4 cigarettes.
Like many individuals who have never smoked a cigarette she coughs a little during the shoot. However, she openly enjoys her first experience. I ask Yasmin a series of questions about cigarettes to try and capture the essence of her newfound pleasure.
The first question I ask is: “How does that feel smoking your first cigarette?” Yasmin replies, “you might have converted me to smoking”. She immediately has a head rush and feels the effects of the delightful smoke flowing around her body.
Ironically, she discusses the control she feels she has over cigarettes! Although smoking is an addictive act, Yasmin sincerely feels she has control because she can determine how much smoke she actually breathes into her lungs. We discuss the relaxation of cigarettes, the taste, the calmness they have on the body etc. When she finishes her first cigarette she holds it towards the camera and utters, “my new friend”.
I ask Yasmin to simply enjoy her second cigarette without interview questions. She keenly obliges and just smokes her cigarette, breathing in the toxins as deep as she can, and relishing watching her lips exhale huge clouds of smoke all over the camera!
In scene 3 we resume with some questions. We discuss the sexiness of smoking and Yasmin claims that girls who smoke cigarettes look “elegant” and “sophisticated”. I ask her if she feels sexy while smoking and she shyly and coyly agrees saying she does. I wonder what she feels as she’s actually breathing the smoke deeply into her body and she offers and in-depth explanation of the pleasure she extracts from her cigarette, replying “it feels like a big ball of smoke travelling down into my lungs…” A glorious explanation I think you’ll agree!
I also ask Yasmin to perform the deepest inhale she can manage. She’s actually not keen on the outcome simply because there’s not too much smoke emerging from her lungs as she exhales, obviously because her body has absorbed much of the smoke.
The final scene is similar to the second. Yasmin smokes another cigarette without questions and breathes her smoke all over the camera – enveloping the lens with thick creamy smoke that has been absorbed in her lungs. This video is truly delightful and I hope to follow Yasmin as she becomes increasingly addicted and a slave to cigarettes!
