Aydinaneth Ortiz Has All the Right Ingredients for Powerful Photos

Aydinaneth Ortiz makes very powerful statements with her photography. 70% Isopropyl Alcohol. Sudafed. Acetone. Large photos of each item with a black background that are meant to jump into your face. These common everyday products are ingredients in the making of crystal meth (Methamphetamine). They are part of a series called Ingredients which is included in a group show, Call and Response, When We Say…You Say, now at the University Art Museum at California State University, Long Beach.

“Ingredients”, 2017
“Ingredients”, 2017
“Ingredients”, 2017

“The point of printing these larger than life is I wanted the text to really be available to read and more of the warning signs than anything.”

For Aydinaneth Ortiz, Ingredients is more than an art exhibit. It’s personal and tragic. A Schizophrenic brother who has self-medicated himself with Crystal Meth. Another brother who died accidentally at his brother’s hands. They may seem like just ordinary photos but there is a stark reality and an emotional story in them. For Ortiz, the needs of her brother and those like him highlight a bigger issue.

“In this country, it’s really hard to get mental health support so he’s run through a lot of problems.”

PalacioMagazine.com visited Aydinaneth Ortiz at the University Art Museum where we discussed her growing up in Long Beach, the quest to discover her creative self, and the very personal family tragedies that haunt her photos in Ingredients.

Ingredients and the group show, Call and Response, When We Say… You Say is on view until April 14, 2019 at the University Art Museum, CSULB. For more information, visit HERE

Aydinaneth Ortiz Biography

Born in Long Beach, Ortiz received her Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of California, Los Angeles and MFA in photography at the California Institute of the Arts. Utilizing documentary, landscape, and portrait photography, she focuses on intersections between urban structures, familial relationships, mental illness, drug addiction, and immigration. Aydinaneth Ortiz has exhibited her artwork internationally, most notably at the Pomona College Museum of Art in Claremont and the Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach, where she is now part of their permanent collection.