facts of life: smoking is everywhere

Girl smoking in Cross Club, Prague

From bars to trams, cars to prams, smoking is everywhere. This habit is very popular in European countries, and perceived much differently to that of smoking in the U.S. We grow up being taught that smoking is bad, causes lung cancer, kills, etc. Europeans just grow up smoking. It's almost as if they are still being affected by the "Joe Cool" Camel advertising from the late 80's. I suppose people say that they move slower here, so that might be an accurate statement. 

In the book The Tipping Point, Malcom Gladwell discusses the allure of smoking and how it draws people in with the 'cool factor'. You do not pick up smoking because you really, truly want to smoke. You pick up smoking because the hot au pair your parents hired one summer used to delicately draw in nicotine fumes when she laid out out by the pool. Her fingers would bring the cig to her mouth, and she would gracefully inhale then exhale the smoke; never, not once, implying smoking was in any way uncool. 

I don't necessarily think Europeans are affected by the 'cool' factor of smoking, its a part of their culture. There is no "Indoor Air Act" or non-smoking section, and surprisingly, no one seems to care. The advertising regulations for countries other than the U.S. allow them to put things such as "SMOKING KILLS" or a cancerous lung all over the box of cigarettes, and that is as good as a "Truth" campaign to them. 

No worries, I'm not planning on taking up smoking anytime soon, but I'll admit that a lot of Czechs look damn cool running through the streets with their cigarettes in hand. Initially, what drew me to capture this photo was her hand. Hands, my favorite thing to photograph, tell so much about a person: where they've been, how they've aged, how hard they work. If you get close enough, you even know if they bite their nails or better yet their skin. In my opinion, hands go unnoticed in today's society and should really get a lot more credit, considering without them your abilities are quite limited. Hands are responsible for the great writing, painting and sculpting we know and love. They are the consoling pat your father places on your back and the tender touch from your grandmother that grazes your face in affection. Alas, I digress, this blog post is about smoking in Czech culture not the beauty of hands.

Bottom line, I'm pretty sure views on smoking, and often habits of smoking, stem from your upbringings. Czech upbringings promote it and therefore its everywhere from bars to trams, cars to prams -- though I'm not implying babies smoke around here.