Death, sex, and trouble 
The marketing of NYC street drugs

Tragic and beautiful, ridiculous and sublime, these photographs are a record of the branded proprietary names of street drugs of The Bronx in the years around the Crack and AIDS epidemics.  

Heroin brand names were mostly associated with trouble and cocaine brand names were mostly associated with good living/the high life. These images tell stories, provide cautionary tales, sell through sex appeal, reference topical issues and engage in Truth In Advertising. Told through the photographs of New York based photographer, Thatcher Keats.