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Say Hello to Prison Photography

By Jeralyn, Section Inmates and Prisons
Posted on Wed Jun 03, 2009 at 01:43:13 PM EST
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I just found this cool site about prison photography among TalkLeft's twitter followers. This is clearly an art site, with a viewpoint. The site's objectives:

To bring to attention things previously unsaid.

To bring attention to things said but unrecorded.

To present a consistent textual and visual editorial voice, to which I am held accountable.

To highlight pre-internet work (digitally unpublished) and give it some exposure.

To joust in the melee of contested meanings in surveillance, fine-art, documentary, amateur, institution, and virtual photographies of prisons and other sites of incarceration.

Hope you check it out.

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    Say Hello to Prison Photography | 8 comments (8 topical)

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    Extremely interesting J (none / 0) (#1)
    by Militarytracy on Wed Jun 03, 2009 at 01:57:41 PM EST
    You can also ask for permission to use some of the photos.  The site owners says they can ask for you as they do have contact with most of the photographers.  I like to mess with polymer clay to make jewelry and it does very good transfers when you bake white clay with a transfer printed on the transfer paper used for dark t-shirt ironons.  I will go through this tonight when it gets quiet and see if there's some pendant or pin inspiration in there.  The bit that I saw was very inspiring.

    the pinhole stuff (none / 0) (#4)
    by Capt Howdy on Wed Jun 03, 2009 at 03:32:35 PM EST
    was very cool strange and surreal.

    Parent
    I just went through the site (none / 0) (#5)
    by Militarytracy on Wed Jun 03, 2009 at 10:55:46 PM EST
    pretty well.  That Arkansas mugshot series is AMAZING.  There is a woman's face in them that oddly reminds me of my own in some way....sort of eerie.  Some of the pinhole stuff would look very cool made into a small pin.  And the piece would possess a lot of interest and character behind it as well.  I need to make a pin for a fellow GSD breeder tomorrow who I'll be seeing this weekend at a temperament testing.  She just finished her first AKC champion so I'm using an image of her dog/baby to do it.  Since I will have all my claying junk out I sent the site owner an email about being able to use some of the pinhole images.  We'll see if I get okayed.

    Parent
    Speaking of prison art... (none / 0) (#2)
    by Bemused on Wed Jun 03, 2009 at 02:32:08 PM EST
     There's always something to learn. I just received a disciplinary report on a client in youthful offender facility and one of the alllegations is possession of powdered bleach.

      I had never heard of powdered bleach getting you high or being an ingredient for producing anything that  does so i was stumped as to whty someone would want it. A quick google and I now know it's used in making prison tattoos.

    there was a guy on death row (none / 0) (#6)
    by Jeralyn on Thu Jun 04, 2009 at 12:31:52 AM EST
    that was featured in the Bennetton campaign against the death penalty that made great art using M&M's for colored paint. He was interviewed about it and it was really interesting.

    Parent
    I admire the ingenuity (none / 0) (#7)
    by Bemused on Thu Jun 04, 2009 at 07:08:34 AM EST
     in adapting available resources and understand the desire for self-expression but can't say I'm a fan of the art of tattooing. Though I can see why a prisoner would want something permanent that can't be confiscated,  I find it harder to understand why people who are not locked up want to express themselves through self-mutilation, but to each his own.

       My all-time favorite tattoo was on a guy I once had who hand L_O_V_E on the knuckles of his right hand and H_A_T on his left. He told me he got caught before the job was finished and then after he got a nasty infection from it decided it wasn't worth it to add the E.

    Parent

    Very cool (none / 0) (#3)
    by otherlisa on Wed Jun 03, 2009 at 02:49:15 PM EST
    I still remember reading, years ago, about an art program in the California prison system - I have no idea if it still exists - and what a positive effect it had on the inmates.

    Yes, site was down (none / 0) (#8)
    by Jeralyn on Tue Dec 03, 2013 at 12:24:50 PM EST
    Thanks to a reader for alerting me. I called Colin, our webmaster, and he had it back up in 5 minutes. No reason yet as to why it went down.

    Say Hello to Prison Photography | 8 comments (8 topical)

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