Photos of inebriation get a bad rap—we’re looking at you, MySpace albums of 2004—but can they be seen as art?

Brazilian photographer Marcos Alberti makes the case that they can indeed. His photo series 3 Glasses Later shows what people look like sober—and then after one, two and three glasses of wine. As you might expect, they become increasingly relaxed, gleeful and rosy-hued—and it’s a fun thing to see. The portraits were shared by redditor throatfrog in Reddit’s Pics community.

It started as a goof-off project. Alberti invited some guests to his studio after they had finished their workdays. Many were tired and had just endured rush-hour traffic. He snapped a photo of each of them as they arrived in their worn-down state. Then, he had them drink.

There is a saying about wine that I really like and it’s something like this: ‘The first glass of wine is all about the food, the second glass is about love and the third glass is about mayhem,'” Alberti writes on his website. “I really wanted to see it for myself if that affirmation was, in fact, true.”

Whether it takes a little bit of liquid courage or not, people sure become more beautiful when their inhibitions float away.

Of course, what we don’t see in this series is Portrait No. 5: the morning-after headache.

Here are some of the photos:

See the full discussion in the original Reddit post.