An apparent heroin user cooks up in the stairwell of a block of flats, oblivious to the world around him.

Little does he know an eagle-eyed teenager with a camera phone is just metres away, watching him as he prepares to shoot up in a public place.

Nowadays Robbie Gunn has a £470 Canon 600D DSLR but back then he had to make do with the mobile phone in his pocket.

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This apparent heroin user was caught on camera. 

The 18-year-old’s family all chipped in one Christmas and he hasn’t looked back since.

He told News Shopper: "Whenever something happened I kind of wanted to capture the moment and portray a message.

"I don’t want people to react by saying ‘look at this druggie, they should just kill him’.

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Robbie with Harriet Koroma, 17.

"I want them to have some compassion and sympathy for them because that’s what I feel."

Robbie, who lives in Hinskey Path, Abbey Wood, has spent the last few years documenting the lives of those who live in the surrounding area, including Thamesmead. 

He said: "I like the area and a lot of people are genuinely nice people but so many of them grew up in bad circumstances with a lack of opportunities.

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Robbie's sister Danielle with the family dog Bella. 

"Quite a lot of people don’t have the motivation to better themselves and get a decent job because they don’t see the opportunities or have the finances to do what they want to do.

"Some of my pictures show the problems the area has.

"They aren’t really getting solved and things are pretty bad at the moment and the people who do drugs really need help."

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It is not all doom and gloom though as there are moments of beauty, like where Robbie’s sister Danielle, 16, strolls across a railway footbridge with the family dog Bella, or the light reflects eerily off floodwater behind a bench.

The pictures’ author, who has just finished a B.Tech in Media at Bexley Business Academy, said: "I would like to move out if I’m lucky enough to get a well paid job.

"But I’ll always come back to see what’s going on."

Follow Robbie on Twitter @Robstar61