Running the PPOTR Numbers

January 2, 2012 in Non-Prison, Opinion | by | 6 comments

Print of Mumia Abu-Jamal portrait by Lou Jones. During the PPOTR interview at his Boston studio, Jones said when he made the portrait it was the first time in 5 years that Mumia had been photographed without shackles on his wrists.

Prison Photography on the Road concluded at approximately 11pm, December 20th.

I’m hugely privileged to have had the opportunity to hit the road and throw myself, an audio recorder, and a sleeping bag at my intellectual passion.

On the 21st December, I hopped aboard a flight bound for holiday cheer, cask ale, mince pies, friends and family in the UK. With Christmas in Yorkshire and New Year in Scotland, I’ve enjoyed an extended period of down-time and in many ways needed that time to digest all that was achieved during PPOTR. And, now, I must responsibly and efficiently share what was learned and gained.

I anticipate 2012 to be a year of flux. I’ll be experimenting with new ways of sharing information. I don’t want to disclose too much at this point as many projects remain in planning stages. Still, expect a shake up here at Prison Photography.

Whilst I get to work, I thought you’d be interested in some figures that in some small ways indicate the parameters and spirit of the trip.

RUNNING THE NUMBERS

12,333 miles total

1,443 image files made with the Lumix digital camera

762 miles – longest drive in a single day (Salt Lake City, Utah to Kearney, Nebraska)

500+ people I spoke with and exchanged ideas

374 gallons of petrol

155 CDs played on car stereo

120 cups of coffee

103 different wi-fi connections

100 postcards sent (at time of writing, number set to increase)

90 days and nights

78 showers

71 pet cats and pet dogs I met

67 interviews (3 interviews every 4 days)

46 destination cities

39 photographers

31 states

28 criminal justice reform experts/advocates

18 ruby Texas grapefruit

16 batteries spent

6 lectures delivered

4 oil changes

3 prisons visited

2 hotels

2 nights sleeping in the car (New York; Arizona)

2 parking tickets (Milwaukee; San Francisco)

1 night camping (in an Iowa thunderstorm)

1 Occupy Movement protest march (Philadelphia)

1 speeding ticket

1 arrest

0 car problems

To You, Happy Christmas, From Google Image Search

December 23, 2011 in Activist Art, Amateur, Convergence, Photography: Non-Prison, Visual Feeds | by | 3 comments

“It’s Pretty Fucking Ridiculous it Took Me Three Years to Ask Prisoners What They Thought of Photographs of Prisons”: The PPOTR Documentary Short

December 16, 2011 in Visual Feeds | by | 1 comment

As many of you will know, a little piece of Prison Photography has been wrapped up in my monotone voice, roadtrip b-roll a bit of car-singing.

Tim Matsui (who helped film the PPOTR Kickstarter video) thought my PPOTR trip was unusual enough that he was willing to put his time and money behind a week-long commitment to follow me over the mid-point of the PPOTR trip. Read Tim’s summary of the experience.

Most importantly the voices of prisoners from Sing Sing Prison in New York State are represented in this film. The prison only allowed us to video two prisoners talking to the camera; their insightful and reasoned positions are representative of all 13 students in that workshop back in November.

I also captured audio and written response to specific photographs from all the men in the workshop. That content will be simmered into something beautiful in the new year. (On production management, I’m astonished at how quick Tim turns projects around.)

Watch the Prison Photography on the Road documentary short

Tim wanted to help clarify my mission and explain it to a wider audience. Uncomfortable being in front of the camera, I was a septic skeptic and an unwilling subject at times. But Tim knows what he’s up to and I should have just trusted him 100% instead of being so precious.

The feedback already has been very positive and encouraging; many emails and Facebook loving. My buddies at DVAFOTO, LPV Magazine, PHONAR and DEVELOP Tube have also helped spread the word.

I’m now nearly at the end of the trip. I’m in San Francisco after 12,500 miles. Four days and two interviews remain.

I’ve made 63 audio interviews so far and published ten. I have to let go of the fact that I can’t share all this material instantly and instead embrace the size of the task to edit the audio, share the images and distill the essentials to do justice to each all of the amazing work and advocacy my interviewees have done and continue to do.

So, PPOTR will bleed into 2012.

For Prison Photography, next year is going to look different and involve a handful of projects that continue still to extend the project beyond the boundaries of the typed word. Stay tuned and thanks for your continued interest.

PPOTR Dispatch #9: Interview with Ara Oshagan

December 9, 2011 in Documentary | Tags: , , , | by | 15 comments

When Ara Oshagan was invited to shoot b-roll for a documentary film in the Los Angeles Central Juvenile Hall, he didn’t hesitate.

“I had lunch with Leslie [Neale, the filmmaker] on Monday, and on Tuesday I was inside with my camera,” says Oshagan. The film was Juvies.

As an Armenian emigre living in Los Angeles, Oshagan was aware of California’s bloated prison and jail systems, but had not thought about how he’d operate as a photographer within them. Previously, his approach was to spend years on his documentary projects often wandering and discovering. In Los Angeles Central Juvenile Hall, time was not a luxury … and neither was space. “I had to keep the film crew out the frame.”

Over the 3 years of the project, Oshagan identified shortcomings in the ability of his photographs alone to describe the experience of the children. His solution? To pair images with poetry and prose of the six children he followed.

When the kids got bumped up into the adult system he followed them there too. “I wanted this work to be about this passage. The adult system is a complete change in culture,” says Oshagan. “The whole culture will take advantage of the younger kids coming in.”

Oshagan witnessed teenagers he knew as small boys, bulk-up in their first six months in the adult system. They told him how the first thing they learnt was how to make weapons to protect themselves.

What surprised both he and his subjects was the length of sentences children are routinely given. And, after they move up through the system, their chances of a secure, violent-free life diminish.

The real kicker? Oshagan concludes his own kids are not too dissimilar to those he photographed in lock up. It’s not too difficult to imagine one poor decision and a life taken over by years of incarceration.

Why does this matter? Well, not only are sentence-lengths for juveniles growing, in recent years many states (40 in total) have introduced laws to allow the trial of juveniles as adults.

How is our society poised for the conversation on the culpability of under-18s and our shared capacity to manage and then forgive?

To help the conversation, Oshagan is to shortly publish the photobook A Poor Imitation of Death. The title comes from one of the kids’ description of imprisonment.

LISTEN TO OUR CONVERSATION AT THE PRISON PHOTOGRAPHY PODBEAN PAGE

All images © Ara Oshagan

‘Kensington Blues’, by Jeffrey Stockbridge

November 20, 2011 in Activist Art, Documentary, Fine Art | Tags: , , | by | 1 comment

I hadn’t planned to interrupt my PPOTR coverage, but when something this important arises then to hell with convention.

You may be familiar with the name Jeffrey Stockbridge, and you’re probably well aware of his Taylor Wessing Portrait Prize shortlisted double-portrait of Tic Tac and Tootise.

Stockbridge has been photographing in Philadelphia for years with a focus on the Kensington Avenue neighbourhood, which Stockbridge describes:

Kensington Avenue is a hot spot for drugs and prostitution located in North Philadelphia. Populated by cheap bars, pawnshops, and check cashing businesses, the Avenue is also the major business corridor in the neighborhood.

Kensington Blues is not just another dip-your-toe-in-poverty photo project; Stockbridge has spent considerable time befriending many of his subjects. He gives them dignity, and with his designated website Kensington Blues, Stockbridge – through audio and transcription – gives each subject a voice.

I am quickly coming to value any photographer’s approach that, above all else, connects the subject to the photographer … and thus the subject to ourselves. Stockbridge’s Kensington Blues pays that attention to human connection.

BIOGRAPHY

Jeffrey Stockbridge is a photographer based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In 2005, he placed runner up in the New York Times Magazine “Capture the Times” college photography contest. Stockbridge is well known for his projects documenting drugs, prostitution and urban blight in Philadelphia for which he has received several grants and awards. Stockbridge is a recipient of a Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Grant, Independence Foundation Fellowship in the Arts Grant and a Center For Emerging Visual Artists Fellowship. His work has been widely exhibited nationally and internationally. Selected exhibitions include The National Portrait Gallery in London, The Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Fleisher Art Memorial, The Delaware Art Museum, The Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts and J. Cacciola Gallery. Stockbridge was recently awarded 3rd Prize in the 2010 Taylor-Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize at The National Portrait Gallery in London. Upcoming exhibitions include Galerie Huit Photography Open Salon 2011 in Arles, France and a solo exhibition of Stockbridge’s work is scheduled for July 2011 at The Wapping Project Bankside in London. (Source)

PPOTR Dispatch #8: Interview with Richard Ross

November 19, 2011 in Documentary, Interview | Tags: , , , | by | 3 comments

16 year old boy in King County Juvenile Detention Center, Seattle.

With a stack of cash and a full paid year of leave what choices would a photographer make?

Richard Ross decided to use his award-winning photography skills and decades of access-negotiating experience to visit and document America’s juvenile detention facilities. Now, by giving his images away for free, he’s passing on his good fortune and helping decision-makers build better policy.

Thanks to a years sabbatical from the University of California and the award of a Guggenheim fellowship, Ross was freed of time and money pressures and over a five-year period, visit more than 350 facilities in 30+ states and interviewed approximately 1,000 children. He hopes Juvenile-In-Justice will change the national debate.

Ross has partnered with the Anne E. Casey Foundation, but it’s not an exclusive relationship; he is open and willing to share his archive with any group working to improve transparency in the system and improve the confinement conditions for our nations incarcerated youth.

In our interview, Ross talks about some of the differences in management he observed across counties and states; describes the trauma experienced by many detained children; explains that sometimes the simplest solutions are best; and expounds on how we are quick to give-up on children who have – for the most part – not seen any benefits of our perceived social contract.

LISTEN TO OUR CONVERSATION ON THE PRISON PHOTOGRAPHY PODBEAN PAGE.

Visit the dedicated website Juvenile-In-Justice for regular updates and transcribed interviews with many of the children in Ross’ photographs.

Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall. Downey, California.

Giddings State School, Giddings, TX. Maximum security. Pictured: hallway of isolation cells, essentially maximum security within maximum security.

Orleans Parish Prison (OPP), New Orleans, Louisiana. The air-conditioning was not working when Ross visited and there was a fight the previous night. As a result T.V., cards and dominoes privilege have been taken away. The OPP, managed by Sheriff Marlin Gusman, houses about 23 juvenile boys. They live two to each cell. The cells at their narrowest measure 6-feet in width.

Orientation Training Phase (OTP), part of Youth Offender System (YOS) Facility in Pueblo, Colorado. OTP performs intake and assessment of convicted children. OTP operates like a boot camp. All of the children at OTP have juvenile sentences with adult sentences hanging, meaning that if they fail in the eyes of the authority they will have to serve their adult sentence. For example, a child could be there serving a two year juvenile sentence with 15 years hanging.

A twelve-year old in his cell where the window has been boarded up from the outside, at the Harrison County Juvenile Detention Center in Biloxi, Mississippi. The facility is operated by Mississippi Security Police, a private company. In 1982, a fire killed 27 prisoners. There is currently a lawsuit against the authorities which forced them to reduce their population. They must now maintain an 8:1 inmate to staff ratio.

Dorm room six of the Hale Ho’omalu Juvenile Hall in Honolulu, Hawaii. Built in the 1950s, the facility was under federal indictment until a replacement facility could be constructed and occupied in early 2010. This boy who has been in and out of foster care all his life, has been here at Hale Ho’omalu for one week. He committed residential burglary in 7th grade and has since repeatedly violated with petty actions like missing meetings or truancy. His father was deported to the Philippines and his mother is a drug-user. The only person who visits him is his YMCA drug counselor.


The Caldwell Southwest Idaho Juvenile Detention Center detains children between the ages of 11-17 years old. When Ross visited, six girls were in detention for the following offenses – two for runaway/curfew violations; lewd and licivious conduct, molestation abuse; controlled substance; trafficking methamphetamine; burglary and marijuana

Under 24-hour observation, this 15 year old boy on the mental health wing of the King County Juvenile Detention Center, Seattle, WA is checked on every 15 minutes.

Restraint chair for self-abusive juveniles at the Mendota Juvenile Treatment Center in Madison, WI houses 29 children and is usually always at full capacity. The average stay for the emotionally and mentally disturbed juveniles, some of which are self-abusive or suicidal, is eight months. Children must be released at age 18, sometimes with no transition options available to them.

View of camera monitoring the isolation room at the St. Louis Detention Center, St. Louis, MO. The facility is run by the Department of Youth Services. When Ross visited only 35 of the 137 beds were occupied. The population had decreased significantly because of the embrace of the principles of the Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative and the leadership of Judge Edwards.

All images © Richard Ross

PPOTR Dispatch #7: Interview with Sye Williams

October 30, 2011 in Commercial, Interview | by | 2 comments

Sye Williams will tell you himself he is not political-engaged in prisons issues. He wanted to shoot a photo-story in a prison and wanted to provide viewers “a slice of life” of the female prisoners at Valley State Prison for Women (VSPW) in Chowchilla, California.

Sye likes to get inside of sub-cultures. In the past, Sye has shot teenage wrestlers, fringe sports-folk and even adopted the persona of a journeyman fighter in order to get inside the world of the amateur boxing circuit. He lost his first bout, but returned a second night with dyed hair and different (leopard skin) shorts to fight again.

Sye, whose film photographs from VSPW have an eerie blue-green institutional patina, visited the prison in 2000. His first impression was that the prison looked like a vocational college. Still, Sye says, “I didn’t see a lot of optimism. […] Everyone always talked about coming back.”

Over five days Sye felt he (and his writing partner and assistants) had virtual unhindered access. Furthermore, he praises the accommodations made by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation for his project. It is unusual for prison photographers to report such freedom within the walls.

Sye is also one of the very few prison photographers to have made multiple portraits of prison staff. He attributes this to the more relaxed atmosphere in a women’s prison. Due to fewer incidents of violence, Sye’s impression was that staff considered work at a women’s prison as a step toward retirement.

Sye’s curiosity leads him to wonder what has happened to the women in the interim ten years and, given the opportunity, he would like to make portraits of them now (whether they are incarcerated or not) a decade on.

We talk about the willingness of women to be photographed, the difficult circumstances of a few of his subjects and the logic of a women’s facility as it compares to a men’s prison.

LISTEN TO OUR CONVERSATION AT THE PRISON PHOTOGRAPHY PODBEAN PAGE

All images © Sye Williams

WE ARE THE 98% … 1% OF OUR POPULATION IS IN PRISON

October 27, 2011 in Activist Art, Prison Non-Photography | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | by | Leave a comment

Matt Bor‘s statement is just terrific and pointed.

I’ve had a few conversation on my travels with people about the Occupy movement. For it to really drive the national agenda and to mold presidential candidates who will not be able to ignore the 99% the cause will need to unite workers, unions, students but most importantly the poverty-stricken.

The poor lose the most in a society where a select few control the majority of wealth.

I suspect poor folk might be more concerned with holding things together in their own neighbourhoods than having the time and incentives to join open-ended demonstrations in the downtown precincts of American cities.

But for a truly important Occupy movement the voices of the most disenfranchised are essential.

I’m left to wonder what the 2.3 million Americans behind bars (who obviously can’t pitch a tent or picket a capitol building) might think of the involvement of the people from their (usually the economically ravaged) communities. In fact I’m wondering what the incarcerated masses think of the Occupy movement generally.*

Despite the figure of incarcerated folk being actually about .7% of all Americans, we should note that 1 in 100 American adults are in prison or jail, and that 7 million American (approx 2% of the total population) are in custody, on parole or under other forms of supervision.

Matt Bor does a great job in confusing our presumptions about ‘freedom of assembly.’

I, for one, would appreciate seeing actual protest signs with this mantra at Occupy gatherings.

Check out Matt Bor’s blog and buy a copy of the cartoon here.

*Anecdotally, many prisoners I’ve worked with as an educator sympathise most with Republican notions of “freedom” and are suspicious of government “meddling”.

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