ANDY DIAZ HOPE
40 Holiday Fiction The Occupation The Occupation (detail) Fuck you.  I'm a model. The Stalker The Stalker (detail) Tony's Miami Adventure Modern Master Dissipation pt 2 Modern Master Dissipation pt 2 (detail) In the Midst of the Incomprehensible In the Midst of the Incomprehensible (detail) Monkey's Reentry Monkey's Reentry (detail) Special Features Special Features (detail) Double Down Double Down (detail) Blow Blow (detail) The Chemist The Chemist (detail) Life in the Funhouse Life in the Funhouse (detail) The Return The Return (detail) Contemplation of Evil Contemplation of Evil (detail) Gesture Study Modern Master Little Boy Blue Little Boy Blue (detail) Second Coming Second Coming (detail) Study in Green Study in Green (detail)
Morning After Portraits
Our society focuses on the glamorous night before--the parties, the clothes, the highs. Magazines dedicate countless 4 color pages to the beauty of the night. . . but what of the next morning? What of the hangovers, the headaches, the depleted serotonin receptors and the bags under the eyes that have no designer label?

The morning after portraits are portraits of people in front of their medicine cabinets or in their local pharmacies with hangovers, migraines, morning sickness and other maladies self-inflicted or bestowed by nature.

When viewed from afar, the portraits can be read as a whole image. As one moves closer, the image begins to break down and the individual capsule pixels become more dominant. As we continue to find new ways to modify our appearance and our psychological and social presence through legal and illegal drugs, we begin to dissipate the whole that we were born as. We are no longer a sum of our natural history, but a sum of our natural history plus our self selected recreational and medical regimes. We look to our medicine cabinets and stashes to attain social and physical super powers. To stay up longer, show no pain or sorrow and look ageless in the process.

The series looks behind the mirror to expose the inner workings of our medicine cabinets and our relationship to them as our doctor, psychologist, cosmetician and spiritual healer. It appeals to the viewer’s voyeuristic desire to look inside another’s hidden cabinet of frailties and insecurities. To see another’s vulnerabilities through the medicines they take strips away that person’s invincibility while bolstering one’s own.
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