WHO
I am not a photographer.
I look and comment.
I work as an independent writer, curator and educator.
WHERE
San Francisco Bay Area, California. Born and raised in Lancashire, England.
WHY PRISONS?
I believe the United States needs to pursue large-scale prison and sentencing reform.
We must stop warehousing people and be creative with rehabilitation. Prisons in the U.S. are socially and economically unsustainable. As they exist, prisons are a liability. Often discussions on prison issues are framed incorrectly. Sometimes prisons are ignored. Problems also exist in other countries.
WHY PHOTOGRAPHY?
Cameras and their operators function in recording, and to some degree, interpreting the stories of (and within) prison systems. How varied is the imagery?
If a camera is within prison walls we should always be asking; How did it get there? What are/were the motives? What are the responses? What social and political powers are at play in photographs manufacture? How is knowledge, related to those powers, constructed? Is the photograph for the prisoner, for the photographer, for the audience, or a combination?
WRITING AND EDITING
Editor and writer, Vantage – November 2014 – present.
Sub-editor, Raw View, Issues 6, 8, 9 and 10 – January 2016 – present.
Writer, Wired – August 2009 – June 2015.
Contributing editor, Photography As A Social Practice – 2014-present.
Contributor, Reading The Pictures – May 2010 – present.
Writing published in Anxy, Aperture, The Atlantic, CNN, The Good Men Project, Huck, Huffington Post, International Center for Photography, Juvenile Justice Information Exchange, The Marshall Project, The Oregonian, Outside Magazine, PDX Design Week, Photo District News, Photo-Eye, Polka Magazine, Raw View, SF Bayview, TIME, Timeline, TruthOut, Winterthur Museum ‘Still Searching’ blog.
ESSAYS
A Warm Thread, foreword for Operation Jurassic by Roxana and Pablo Allison (2018)
GTMO: Vision Destabilized, catalogue essay for ‘Debi Cornwall: Welcome To Camp America: Inside Guantanamo Bay’ exhibition, Philadelphia Photo Arts Center (2018)
Portrait Of Fear, foreword for Bug Out Bag, by Allison Stewart (2017)
Off Paper, foreword for Corrections, by Zora J. Murff (Ain’t Bad Publishers, 2015)
Never Neutral, essay for Ernest Collective exhibition publication Demos: Wapato Correctional Facility (Container Corps, 2015)
What Are We Doing Here? Essay for Try Youth As Youth exhibition catalogue, David Weinberg Photography, Chicago (2015)
The Prying Eye of the Public Lens, Carnegie Museum of Art’s Hillman Photography Initiative (Sept, 2014)
Essay for Amy Elkins’ Black Is The Day, Black Is The Night, Daylight Digital (Dec. 2013)
Essay for Some Other Places We Have Missed newspaper, by Mark Strandquist’s exhibition of the same name at The Bridge PAI, Charlottesville, VA. (June, 2013)
Foreword for Life’s A Blast, by Linda Forsell (Premiss; 1st edition, 2012)
Foreword for Confined exhibition catalogue, Bluecoats Gallery, Liverpool, UK (2011)
CURATING
Prison Obscura (Jan 2014-Apr 2016). Exhibition of prison non-traditional imagery – surveillance, code, vernacular, workshop photography. Cantor Fitzgerald Gallery, Haverford, PA. (Jan 24th 2014 – Mar 7th, 2014); Scripps College, Claremont, CA (Sept 2nd-Oct 17th); Alfa Art Gallery & Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ (Oct 7th-Nov. 1st, 2014); Parsons New School of Design, New York, NY (Feb 5th-Apr 17th, 2015); University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (Sept 8th-25th, 2015); Evergreen State College, Olympia, WA (Jan 14th-Mar 2nd, 2016); and Newspace Center for Photography, Portland, OR (Apr 1st-May 28th, 2016).
Status Update (Nov. 2015) Exhibition of photography & video about change, chance and inequality in the San Francisco Bay Area, including the work of fourteen artists, at SomArts, San Francisco. Co-curated with Rian Dundon. Produced by Catchlight. Press including Time, Wired, Mashable, Vice, California Sunday Magazine, Mother Jones, Silicon Valley DeBug, Stanford University, Muni Diaries, Reading The Pictures and East Bay Express.
Seen But Not Heard, Artget Gallery, Kulturni Centar Belgrada, Belgrade, Serbia (Dec, 2013). An exhibition of photographs from American juvenile detention facilities. Featuring Ara Oshagan, Richard Ross, Joseph Rodriguez, Steve Liss, Steve Davis and the work of children at the Rhode Island Training School (RITS) taking classes through AS220. More here.
The Depository Of Unwanted Photographs, Photoville, New York (Sept. 2013). A crowdsourced socially-engaged installation over 6 days in which we accepted submissions from members of the public of their forgettable and storied images.
Cruel and Unusual, Noorderlicht Photogallery, Groningen, The Netherlands (Feb 18th-Apr 8th, 2012); Melkweg Gallery, Amsterdam, The Netherlands (May, 2012); Photoville, New York (June 22nd-July 1st, 2012); Reportage Photo Festival, Sydney, Australia (25 May – 13 June); Sirius Art Center, Cobh, Ireland (13 June – 7 July, 2013 ).
Women in [Prison] Photography, for the Women in Photography website. (Feb 2012).
Non Sufficient Funds, Vermillion Gallery, Seattle, WA (Apr 2010). A show of prison artwork made by a dozen students from Monroe Correctional Complex. Details here, here and here.
SPEAKING
Can Images Counter Mass Incarceration? Portland State University Camera Arts Association, with Lorenzo Triburgo, Sarah-Jasmine Calvetti and Barry Sanders, April 2nd, 2016.
GeekFest, Oakland, September, 2015.
Boreal Bash, Toronto, August, 2015.
Visualizing the Legacy of Mass Incarceration, CUNY School of Journalism + Everyday Incarceration, May 14th, 2015.
Imagery and Prisons: Engaging and Persuading Audiences panel, ‘Marking Time’ Prison Arts and Activism Conference, Institute for Research on Women, Rutgers University, NJ, October 2014.
Creative Mornings, Portland, August 15th, 2014.
Photo-Based Social Practice, Aperture Foundation, NYC, May 16, 2014. Panel discussion of socially engaged, transdisciplinary, and expanded practices in contemporary photography, co-presented by Magnum Foundation’s Photography, Expanded initiative. With Eliza Gregory, Gemma-Rose Turnbull, Mark Strandquist and Wendy Ewald.
Princeton University, SPEAR (Students for Prison Education And Reform) ‘Building a New Criminal Justice: Mobilizing Students for Reform’ Conference, April 4-5, 2014.
Philadelphia Lawyers for Social Equity (PLSE) lecture, Friends Center, Philadelphia, April 2nd, 2014.
Bearing Witness Symposium, San Francisco MoMA, lecture, March 16th, 2014.
Society for Photographic Education Northwest (SPENW) Conference, November 7th, 2013.
Prison Communities: You Can’t Arrest Your Way to a Solution. Social Practice Engaging the Criminal Justice System panel, Open Engagement, Portland State University, May, 2012.
I was a contributor to the free, online undergraduate photography courses Photography and Narrative (#PHONAR) and Picturing the Body (#PICBOD) at Coventry University, UK.
I’ve been a panelist/moderator for a number of OPEN-i webinars including Edmund Clark on Guantanamo and Photographic Coverage of the Haiti Earthquake.
Lectures at Nottingham Trent University, UK and Coventry University, UK. Lectures at Haverford College, PA; George Mason University, VA, Corcoran College of Art+Design, DC; Evergreen State College, WA; Bowdoin College, ME; Grinnell College, IO; University of North Texas, Denton, TX; School of Visual Arts, NY; Maryland Institute of Contemporary Art (MICA), MD; Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design (MIAD), WI; School of the Arts (SOTA), San Francisco, CA; Scripps College, CA; Pacific Northwest College of Art, OR; Parsons The New School, NY; San Francisco Art Institute, CA; University of Michigan, MI: Columbia Journalism School, NY; and Yale, CT.
In 2016, I did a Q&A with Years 4 and 5 at St. Joseph’s RC Primary School, Chorley, England.
REPORTING
Prison Photography on the Road (PPOTR), Autumn 2011
Between September 24th and December 20th, 2011, I made a 12-week research road-trip across America. I interviewed over three dozen photographers who have documented prisons. In addition, I spoke to two dozen leading practitioners in prison arts, prison education, prison law and activism.
PPOTR audio interviews are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License and will be published on a dedicated website (upcoming) for free use. PPOTR was made possible with the support of 182 backers who supported my Kickstarter campaign, Prison Photography on the Road: Stories Behind the Pictures.
Reading The Pictures ‘Salon’ panelist
The Fall of Bin Laden, images about the assassination of Osama Bin Laden.
The Lens in the Mirror: How Surveillance is Pictured in the Media and Public Culture.
JURY DUTYING & NOMINATORING
Juror for Photolucida’s 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2017 and 2018 Critical Mass.
Juror for 2013 LUCEO Student Project Award.
Juror for 2014 Exposure Award.
Nominator for the Magnum Foundation 2013 Emergency Fund Grants (more here).
Nominator for the Tim Hetherington Visual Media Grant (2014, 2015, 2016)
Nominator for the 2015 Prix Pictet.
Juror for the 2015 SF Camerawork Annual Juried Members Exhibition.
Nominator for the 2016 Baum Award.
VOLUNTEERISM
Advisory board member to Students for Prison Education and Reform (SPEAR).
Advisory board member to Looking At Appalachia.
Art teacher and board-member with University Beyond Bars, a prison higher education program at Washington State Reformatory, Monroe, WA (May 2009 – Sept 2011).
Volunteer co-ordinator with Books To Prisoners, Seattle, WA (Jan 2009 – Sept 2011).
SOME AUDIO AND VIDEO
While I was on the road in 2011, Tim Matsui followed me for a week and made Prison Photography On The Road, a 7-minute short about my work, including a workshop delivered at Sing Sing Prison, NY.
In summer 2014, I spoke to Oregon Public Broadcasting about my research.
In The Other One Percent, I talked with Jeff Emtman and Here Be Monsters about prisons, fear and the unknown.
NICE THINGS SAID
Howard Chapnick Award ($5,000), from the W. Eugene Smith Fund, for my collaborative work with prisoners at San Quentin State Prison, California. I taught the History Of Photography and then helped usher the incarcerated students final papers on prison imagery to publication in national and international outlets. (Oct. 2018)
Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting Grantee for collaborative work with prisoners at San Quentin State Prison, California. (Fall 2018/Winter 2019)
Beast Best Award. One of 100 best websites as selected by editors of the Daily Beast/Newsweek. (June 2013)
“A global perspective on the gritty and honest reality of incarceration, told through photographs, interviews, and commentary.”
Best Investigative Reporting on U.S. Prisons by ProPublica (June 2012)
10 of the Best Photoblogs by the British Journal of Photography, as selected by Joerg Colberg. (July 2011)
“Given the high incarceration rate in the US, there is no shortage of material to cover. Brook is incredibly passionate and knowledgeable about his subject and his mantra might be most obvious from a recent post entitled “Blogging about photography is a political act.”
Top 20 Best Photo Blogs by LIFE.com. (May 2011)
“This is heavy, thoughtful stuff — it’s impossible to spend time here without feeling your assumptions about all sorts of issues beginning to wobble — and Prison Photography presents it all with grace, power, and a wry, welcome humor.”
PRESS
Prison Photography has been featured by:
- ACLU
- American Photo
- The Stranger
- IMPOSE Magazine
- New Criticals
- VICE
- New York Times (2011)
- New York Times (2016)
- The British Journal of Photography
- The Los Angeles Times
- The Philadelphia Inquirer
- HUCK Magazine
- APAD
- The Kickstarter blog
- Feature Shoot
- POSI+TIVE Magazine
- In These Times
- SojournPosse
- Thoughts on Photography
- Wonderful Machine
- Seattle Weekly
- Juvenile Justice Information Exchange
- DVAFOTO
- The Penal System blog
- Thomas Boyd blog
- Raconteur
- Portland Monthly
- Northwest Military
- Crave
- This On That
- The Art Bus Project
- The Clymb
- The Carville Annex
Top photo by Robert Gumpert.
42 comments
November 7, 2010 at 5:03 am
Pete Brook, Prison Photographer « Camilleperrette's Blog
[…] expect to find coverages. Since October of 2008, he collects informations, and pictures. His website works like a magazine, or a […]
November 15, 2010 at 2:16 pm
Meet Your Favorite Photobloggers | dvafoto
[…] week our good friend Pete Brook, creator of the must-read Prison Photography blog and now lead photo blogger himself at Wired […]
December 10, 2010 at 9:12 am
Writing with Photography « My National Prison Journal Project
[…] I have found the answer to this dilemma, which had not previously crossed my mind, until I read Pete Brook’s blog entitled Photography School: Rehabilitating Prisoners through Self-Representation. The blog […]
December 20, 2010 at 4:05 am
Writtenbylight » ….truth and rights…
[…] All texts copyright Pete Brook: […]
February 3, 2011 at 5:46 am
Upcoming lecture Pete Brook – “Tattoos, scars and tears: Robert Gumpert’s work in San Francisco’s jails” « PICBOD – A free and open undergraduate photography class
[…] super pleased to have Pete Brook coming in from Seattle next week to speak to #picbod students about the work of Robert Gumpert in […]
February 3, 2011 at 5:49 am
Pete Brook Photography Talk « Photography at Coventry University
[…] super pleased to have Pete Brook coming in from Seattle next week to speak to #picbod students about the work of Robert Gumpert in […]
February 8, 2011 at 10:02 am
Pete Brook | The Blog Of, Bijash Chauhan
[…] https://prisonphotography.wordpress.com/pete-brook/ This entry was posted in 251MC and tagged 251MC. Bookmark the permalink. ← Exhibition Poster LikeBe the first to like this post. […]
February 9, 2011 at 8:41 am
Guest Lecture: Pete Brook – ‘Tattoos, scars and tears, Robert Gumpert’s work in San Francisco jails’ « PICBOD – A free and open undergraduate photography class
[…] week, Pete Brook came in from Seattle to speak to #picbod students about the work of Robert Gumpert in San Francisco […]
February 9, 2011 at 8:47 am
Pete Brook: ‘Tattoos, scars and tears, Robert Gumpert’s work in San Francisco jails’ « Photography at Coventry University
[…] week, Pete Brook came in from Seattle to speak to #picbod students about the work of Robert Gumpert in San Francisco […]
February 10, 2011 at 7:51 am
Picbod, a half time summary « Photography at Coventry University
[…] speaker – Pete Brook image ©Robert […]
March 3, 2011 at 1:54 am
Links, comments and suggestions | The Photo Book Club
[…] Reply – Pete Brook I think Larissa’s wish to read criticism upon the release of ‘The Americans’ is tantalising. […]
March 18, 2011 at 10:00 am
Just another mental health #fail… | duckrabbit - we produce photofilms
[…] ever interesting Pete Brook sent me over a link to this fascinating and rather depressing story…(sorry…don’t […]
March 30, 2011 at 3:06 pm
Robert Gumpert ~ Locked and Found: Inside San Francisco’s Jails « PICBOD – A free and open undergraduate photography class
[…] enough to have two guest speakers talk about the work of Robert Gumpert in San Francisco jails. Pete Brook and Benjamin Chesterton both gave talks that featured Robert’s work. (Talks linked […]
April 12, 2011 at 8:10 am
No te conviertas en esto | borjalazaroherrero.com | blog
[…] controversia se abre con una fotografía publicada por Nathan Weber en una entrevista realizada por Peter Brook y publicada en su blog: […]
May 4, 2011 at 9:41 pm
Washington State Reformatory Portraits
[…] stacked high with lighting equipment and cameras. My friend and photo/prison blogger extraordinaire Pete Brook and Seattle Weekly reporter Keegan Hamilton helped me push the load of gear through several […]
September 1, 2011 at 4:26 am
notes on Supermax prisons, scatterback scanners and dehumanizing ‘others’ « Birgit Deubner
[…] https://prisonphotography.wordpress.com/pete-brook/ […]
October 17, 2011 at 11:10 am
Prison Photography « The Drugs Factory
[…] Pete Brook es un periodista freelance y fotógrafo de Lancashire, Inglaterra y ahora residente en Seattle, Estados Unidos. Dice no considerarse un fotógrafo sino que él mira y comenta lo que ve. Y de eso se trata su último proyecto. […]
November 15, 2011 at 3:09 pm
Prison Photography : The Drugs Factory
[…] Pete Brook es un periodista freelance y fotógrafo de Lancashire, Inglaterra y ahora residente en Seattle, Estados Unidos. Dice no considerarse un fotógrafo sino que él mira y comenta lo que ve. Y de eso se trata su último proyecto. […]
December 1, 2011 at 2:40 am
Pete Brook – Prison Photography on the Road « PHONAR – A free and open photography class
[…] thanks to #phonar contributor Pete Brook for taking time out of his busy road schedule to talk to the #phonar students about ‘Prison […]
December 12, 2011 at 4:42 am
Video – Pete Brook: Prison Photography on the Road « PHONAR – A free and open photography class
[…] journalist and producer Tim Matsui spent 7 days with #phonar contributor Pete Brook during the ‘Prison Photography on the Road’ trip that Pete talked about here. In the […]
January 19, 2012 at 10:37 am
We’re On Wired! | BearHanded
[…] Pete Brook wrote a lovely article on our project thiswildidea. […]
March 28, 2012 at 9:22 am
Prison Photography: An Interview with Pete Brook | Feature Shoot
[…] 2012 · 0 comments .nrelate .nr_sponsored{ left:0px !important; } // Photo by Richard Ross Pete Brook, based in Portland, OR, is a freelance writer who focuses on the politics and social justice in […]
May 24, 2012 at 9:39 am
Open Engagement, AAM, Social Practice and a Forward Vision @ Grand Central Art Center « grandcentralartcenter
[…] Practice Engaging the Criminal Justice System – with panelists Gregory Sale, John D. Spiak, Pete Brook, Rachel Marie-Crane Williams and Julie Perini. Bernie Díaz (Faculty @ SMU’s Meadows School […]
June 6, 2012 at 11:30 am
» Spotlight on Lilly McElroy, I Throw Myself at Men this is the what
[…] 6 Jun Ah I love this! Thank you Pete Brook! […]
November 22, 2012 at 12:15 pm
Phonar Lecture : In conversation with the writer Pete Brook of Prison Photography and WIRED. « Genea Bailey's Blog
[…] bit of background on Pete Brook […]
February 13, 2013 at 5:10 am
Interview: Pete Brook on the Road | dvafoto
[…] 2011 Pete Brook took his blog Prison Photography on the road. He used Kickstarter to successfully fund his trip, […]
July 9, 2013 at 8:50 am
The Five Totally Reasonable Demands That Prisoners In California Are Willing To Die For - We Copwatch
[…] Pete Brook […]
October 9, 2013 at 7:34 am
Prison Photography | Over These Prison Walls
[…] Pete Brook is a Portland-based writer, journalist, and curator whose work represents an impressive catalogue and history of prison photography. […]
December 16, 2013 at 3:12 am
Američki zatvori | lensfler
[…] Pit Bruk (Pete Brook) ima ime koje se izgovara sa produženim “i” i u petak je u ArtGetu otvorio izložbu, a nije fotograf. OK, jeste po malo. […]
January 9, 2014 at 9:56 pm
LUCIDA » » INTERVIEW // GEMMA-ROSE TURNBULL
[…] Gregory, Sharita Towne, Harrell Fletcher, Jen Delos Reyes, Mark Menjivar, Mark Strandquist, Pete Brook, Dr Marnie Badham and Amy Spiers among many others. Everything I do is collaborative these […]
January 17, 2014 at 5:50 pm
Taking Inspiration from Pete Brook by Josie Weidner « Creative Writing
[…] more information, visit Pete Brook’s blog: https://prisonphotography.org/pete-brook/ and check out his twitter account, @Brookpete (All Pete’s tweets are written, very proudly, by […]
March 1, 2014 at 1:28 pm
Photo collectives are the bloody future | The Aubergine Coat
[…] rocked my world. I hereby gratefully quote from an article that photography publicist and blogger Pete Brook wrote for Wired two years ago. It consisted of interviews with members of ‘7 budding photo […]
March 5, 2014 at 4:49 pm
SFMOMA — Visual Activism Symposium - P h o t o g r a p h y
[…] Bearing Witness event will include our collegue Pete Brook, editor of prisonphotography.org; Mike Krieger, co-founder, Instagram; Susan Meiselas, […]
March 20, 2014 at 4:10 pm
Panel at Aperture Foundation in May for Open Engagement 2014 - P h o t o g r a p h y
[…] by Eliza Gregory, panelists include: Pete Brook, Gemma-Rose Turnbull, Mark Strandquist, and Wendy […]
February 9, 2015 at 12:08 pm
Feature Shoot Recommends: Top 10 Photo Events and Happenings in New York (Feb. 9 – 15)
[…] Johnson Design Center, 2 West 13th Street, February 6 – April 17, 2015 Pete Brook, editor of Prison Photography, curates this collection of images that investigate the realities of prison life, including […]
February 13, 2015 at 1:56 pm
Humanities Action Lab:
[…] Brook, writer, editor of the website Prison Photography, and curator of Prison Obscura, which presents rarely seen vernacular, surveillance, […]
March 26, 2015 at 10:44 am
MIR Magazine Looks at Portland |
[…] to spend a few days with the wonderful Pete Brook who writes quite thoughtfully about Prison Photography and photography in general for Wired […]
April 4, 2015 at 5:28 pm
Surviving Prison and Returning to Society Through Art, as Documented by Willow Paule | Prison Photography
[…] Pete Brook […]
July 3, 2015 at 4:37 am
The Lens in the Mirror: How Surveillance is Pictured in the Media and Public Culture — A Joint Open Society-BagNews Salon — BagNews
[…] Pete BrookFreelance writer and curator […]
February 29, 2016 at 8:52 am
Shalmon Bernstein – Movie Ladies/Times Square | Wobneb Magazine
[…] here from the blog Photography Prison, the so-named alter ego of Prison Photography by Pete […]
June 2, 2016 at 9:21 am
Kamil Sleszynski, Input/Output (2014 – 2015) |
[…] in the context of prison and criminology in general. As Sleszynski pointed out in an interview with Pete Brook for Prison Photography, normally, prisoners get photographed twice – first, upon their entry […]
September 22, 2017 at 2:26 am
Q&A: Gemma-Rose Turnbull – Photography as a Social Practice
[…] Social Practice, a site built in collaboration with colleagues Eliza Gregory, Mark Strandquist and Pete Brook. She was the editor of the Open Engagement Blog Project which became the first edition published by […]