Prison Obscura, curated by Pete Brook
Curated by Prison Photography editor Pete Brook, Prison Obscura explores an area of society that, in spite of its explosive growth, continues to exist in the shadows: the country’s prisons and jails. Presenting rarely seen vernacular, surveillance, evidentiary, and prisoner-made photographs, the exhibition sheds light on the prison industrial complex and those it confines.
The works in Prison Obscura vary from aerial views of prison complexes to intimate portraits of incarcerated individuals. Artist Josh Begley and musician Paul Rucker use imaging technology to depict the sheer size of the prison industrial complex, which houses 2.3 million Americans in more than 6000 prisons, jails and detention facilities at a cost of $70 billion per year; Steve Davis led workshops for incarcerated juvenile in Washington State to reveal their daily lives; Kristen S. Wilkins collaborates with female prisoners on portraits with the aim to compete against the mugshots used for both news and entertainment in mainstream media; Robert Gumpert presents a nine-year project pairing portraits and audio recordings of prisoners from San Francisco jails; Mark Strandquist uses imagery to provide a window into the histories, realities and desires of some incarcerated Americans; and Alyse Emdur illuminates moments of self-representations with collected portraits of prisoners and their families taken in prison visiting rooms as well as her own photographs of murals in situ on visiting room walls. Also, included are images presented as evidence during the landmark Brown v. Plata case, a class action lawsuit that which went all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States, where it was ruled that every prisoner in the California State prison system was suffering cruel and unusual punishment due to overcrowded faciltiies and the failure by the state to provide adequate physical and mental healthcare. - Prison Obscura - Exhibition at the New School in New York - Through April 17th
Can Photos of Prisons Actually Improve the Lives of Prisoners? by Pete Brook [Medium]
Discussed in Episode 2.13 with Pete Brook
1. Image made by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation used as evidence against the state in the landmark Brown v. Plata class action lawsuit
2. Alyse Emdur. Robert RuffBey, United States Penitentiary, Atlanta, Georgia
3. Robert Gumpert, Nelson Yee, 09 September, 2009. From the series Take A Picture; Tell A Story
4. Alyse Emdur. Anonymous Backdrop Painted in Shawangunk Correctional Facility, New York. From Prison Landscapes (2005–2011).
5. One of the 5,300+ satellite grabs that make up Josh Begley’s project ‘Prison Map.
6. Robert Gumpert. Tameika Smith, 22 February, 2013. From the series ‘Take A Picture; Tell A Story’
7. Polaroid of Emdur (right) with her incarcerated brother and her sister, 1985.
8. An image made by incarcerated youth at Green Hill School, WA in workshops led by Steve Davis.
9. Kristen S. Wilkins. Supplication #17. “It might be hard to find, but it’s called Trapper Peak near the Bitterroot Valley.”
10. An image used in the landmark Brown v Plata class action lawsuit that ruled overcrowding led to inadequate physical and mental health care, preventable deaths and the violation of 8th amendments rights of every prisoner within the California prison system.
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