In 2005, Alyse Emdur unearthed a photograph (above) of her visiting her older brother in prison. She recalls, even as a 5 year old, her confusion and discomfit with the tropical beach scene to her back.
To Alyse, these garishly coloured corners of the prison visiting rooms are analogous with commercial photo portrait studios, “If you weren’t familiar with prisons, you might think these were prom photos or made in community centres. They’re very ambiguous,” says Alyse.
Fascinated by the obscure and closeted mural works in prisons across the U.S., Alyse meditated upon them in her MFA grad show (she even commissioned a prison artist to paint a mural on parachute canvas). She is now bringing hundreds of authentic American prison visiting room portraits from her Prison Landscapes project together in a book to be released later this year.
Alyse contacted over 300 prisoners via prison penpal and dating websites. Just over 150 agreed to be part of the project.
In the past, I’ve argued that visiting room portraits may constitute the largest type of American vernacular photography not seen by the majority public. I’ve also noted how companies will manipulate these portraits and, at the request of the owner, photoshop out the prison environment. Photoshop “services” such as these are the post-production equivalent of the denial existent in the original works.
If these idyllic landscapes are about escape it might not just be in an emotional sense, “They are a security feature,” says Alyse. “The backdrops are there to control the type of imagery that is being exported out of the institution. To be specific, the administration doesn’t want images of the inside of the prison to circulate outside of the prison because the thinking is that those images could help an inmate escape. That’s what makes these images slippery and interesting; they also create an escape for the poser and for the [family member] who receives the photo.”
How or why does this discussion matter? Well, essentially these are images about control. Cameras are considered a security hazard by prison authorities. Prisoners have no opportunity to self-represent (bar some very exceptional prison photo workshops). After their mugshot, these visiting room portraits are the only chance America’s 2.3 million prisoners have to achieve something that approximates self-representation. These are highly mediated images and they are often a performance that belies the hardship of prison life.
Alyse and I talk about the regionalism of the backdrop murals; the dearth of research on this quirky and hidden aspect of American visual culture; and Alyse notes how the artistry of mural painting is disappearing as acrylic and enamel paint is replaced by large photo-printed screens.
LISTEN TO OUR DISCUSSION ON THE PRISON PHOTOGRAPHY PODBEAN PAGE
Alyse Emdur (b. NJ, USA 1983) works with photography, video, research, social engagement, and drawing. Her work has been exhibited at Printed Matter and the Lambent Foundation in New York; the University of Texas Visual Arts Center in Austin; Bezalel University in Tel Aviv, Israel; the Lab in San Francisco; La Montagne Gallery in Boston; Laura Bartlett Gallery in London, England; Spacibar in Oslo, Norway; In Situ in Paris, France, and Kunststichting Artis in Hertogenbosch, Netherlands.
In Spring 2012, a book of her project Prison Landscapes will be published by Four Corners Books (London).
Download an interview with Niels Van Tomme published in the Fall 2011 Issue of Art Papers Magazine, here (PDF)
Download an excerpt of Prison Landscapes published in Issue 37 of Cabinet Magazine, here (PDF)
12 comments
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January 4, 2012 at 8:13 am
CoRo Photo
Absolutely fascinating. I have an older brother in prison myself and now when I look back at the photos he used to send me, I find myself realizing they are indeed the kind in your work. It’s just weird, making that connection.
January 6, 2012 at 7:30 pm
John Wedgwood Golden
Alyse, your prison photography makes me angry. This is state censorship at its finest. Oh! What a nice circus! Where are the Clowns? This would be funny if, men were not being butchered behind these propaganda photographs!
February 3, 2012 at 9:16 am
Required reading – Self-Representation: Prison Polaroids, Public Mugshots & Facebook Profile Pics « PICBOD – A free and open undergraduate photography class
[…] Artist, Alyse Emdur collated visiting room portraits. Read my introduction to her work … https://prisonphotography.wordpress.com/2012/01/03/ppotr-dispatch-10-prison-visiting-room-portraits-a… … and listen to our interview: […]
February 9, 2012 at 6:25 am
Self-Representation: Prison Polaroids, Public Mugshots and Facebook Profile Pics « PICBOD – A free and open undergraduate photography class
[…] Artist, Alyse Emdur collated visiting room portraits. Read my introduction to her work … https://prisonphotography.wordpress.com/2012/01/03/ppotr-dispatch-10-prison-visiting-room-portraits-a… … and listen to our interview: […]
February 9, 2012 at 7:16 pm
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February 10, 2012 at 2:37 am
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July 9, 2012 at 12:50 pm
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September 25, 2012 at 6:35 pm
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November 22, 2012 at 5:29 am
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February 13, 2013 at 7:14 am
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[…] Alyse Emdur’s work, which is a collection of prison portraits in visiting rooms is a pretty pure presentation of a significant form of American vernacular photography most of us just don’t see. The creepy, inoffensive, garish backdrops designed to specifically for portraiture in the visiting room, reflect both the naïve art culture within prisons and the manipulative power of the prison. They are both the evidence and the substance of heterotopic space; they exist nowhere else and would make no sense anywhere else. […]
February 21, 2013 at 9:34 pm
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[…] Prison, in Beth Nakamura’s photography in Oregon’s prisons, in Alyse Emdur’s collected portraits, and in Geoffrey James’ work in Kingston Penitentiary in Canada, among other […]