Mickey Aloisio

*E is for Empty Yourself from Yourself*, 2024, 48 x 70 inches, gelatin silver print, gelatin silver prints, cigar boxes, wood stain. This work was made with generous support from the Cafe Cultural Foundation NYC and was exhibited as part of the Sixth AIM Biennial at the Bronx Museum of the Arts in April 2024.

*Dad with his 7 Days Cover*, 2024, Silver gelatin print, 10 x 10 inches.
This image was made at the NYPL after finally tracking down the magazine, 7 Days. 7 Days was a politically left-leaning weekly periodical that ran in New York from 1988 - 1990 but could not sustain itself long-term due to a lack of advertising revenue. Peter Schjeldahl, the famed art critic at The New Yorker, wrote the weekly art column for the lifespan of the magazine. My dad was on the cover of this issue for an interior 6-page spread criticizing the 'brass' at 1 police plaza for their improper recruitment, hiring, training, and other policies/practices that have contributed to harmful outcomes on the streets and beyond. My dad was nearly fired for his involvement with this article almost as soon as his carer began because, in some ways, he became the poster boy for the problems of policing.

*E is for Empty Yourself from Yourself*, 2022, 11 x 14 inches, silver gelatin print. This project title comes from the titular photograph in the series, referencing a quote that my dad circled in one of his self-help books, depicting the space behind his bed. This image lays bare the intimate markings of one year's worth of tossing and turning through the night, to the point that the paint and sheetrock of the wall have been chipped through to expose the metal stud framing.

E is for Empty Yourself, 2024

Silver gelatin prints

E is for Empty Yourself is a long-term photographic project focusing on my father, our relationship, and his journey through drug addiction and substance abuse recovery in the aftermath of a career as a police officer. My dad, Paul, worked the night shift as an NYPD officer in the Bronx during the 1980s, 1990s, and early 2000s. In 2022, my dad moved into a new apartment in Queens; the first time he’s lived alone in over 15 years. This project focuses on this new chapter of his life, creating photographs centered on five main categories: drug addiction and alcoholism, religion, economic precarity, attempts at self-agency, and the relationship he has created with iconographic– and predominantly male– pop cultural symbols that he surrounds himself with. I position my father’s struggles as yet another, albeit more personal, failure of the criminal justice system; a system known for the exploitative ways in which it has used its workers as pawns for political gain. Within this work, I am trying to bring considerations of class, education, and workplace conditions into larger discussions around state violence, the future of the American worker, and the institution of policing.