Richard Kern – Medicated

Richard Kern dabbles with prescription pills and takes us inside the white picket fences of America’s suburban drug addiction. Capturing the girls in their own surroundings was important to the photographer, “I need a certain type of bathroom for most of the series – hopefully where the girl lives,” he explains.

“I also like the over the counter drugs like toothpaste and lotions that are in the bathrooms. For birth control pills I usually shoot in their bedroom.” The images themselves are a hauntingly real insight into modern day drug addiction. Forget the back alleys, dirty needles and hollowed out eyes, Kern’s images instead comment on the – perhaps even more frightening – realisation that anybody can fall foul of addiction, no matter how nice your bathroom is.