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THE BLOG GROWS LEGS

It’s with excited anticipation and a good amount of nerves that I announce the launch of my Kickstarter project Prison Photography on the Road: Stories Behind the Photos.

I propose a 12-week road-trip across America meeting many of the leading photographers who, in the past 40 years, have documented the rise of the U.S. prison industrial complex. I’ll also be speaking with some of the leading practitioners in prison arts, prison education and advocacy.

Interviewees include:

• Jenn Ackerman, award winning photographer for Trapped
• Adam Amengual, commercial and documentary photographer
• Victor Blue, seasoned photojournalist specialising in social and political story telling
• Lloyd Degrane, commercial and documentary prisons, known for his series Prison
• Amy Elkins, fine art photographer working on collaborative project with death row prisoners
• Harvey Finkle, social documentary photographer
• Tim Gruber, fine art and documentary photographer known for his series Served Out
• Bruce Jackson, photographer and SUNY James Agee Professor of American Culture
• Lou Jones, known for his death row portraits
• Brenda Ann Kenneally, documentary photographer who focuses on women families and marginalised communities
• Jon Lowenstein, NOOR member and award winning photojournalist
• Deborah Luster, fine art photographer
• Danny Lyon, pioneering documentary photographer
• Frank McMains, photographer of multiple prison stories in Louisiana
• Ara Oshagan, award winning documentary photographer known for Juvies
• Mona Reeder, Dallas Morning News photojournalist, Robert F. Kennedy Award and Hillman Prize for Photojournalism winner
• Joseph Rodriguez, documentary photographer, social activist, ICP instructor
• Richard Ross, Guggenheim recipient and photographer
• Jamel Shabazz, photographer, teacher, retired prison guard
  
• Adam Shemper, psychotherapist and photographer
• Jan Sturmann, documentary photographer
• Stephen Tourlentes, professor and fine art photographer
• Lori Waselchuk, documentary photographer, known for Grace Before Dying
• Max Whittaker, photojournalist and Prime Collective founder
• Sye Williams, commercial photographer and gadfly
• Taro Yamasaki, Pulitzer prize winner for photojournalism
• Robert Gumpert, Documentary photographer

This is a journalism project, the product of which is the approximately 40 interviews I will conduct. They’ll be made available, via Creative Commons license, to any and all in the photo and prison reform communities. In addition, my writings will be free to distribute with attribution to interested parties.

Fundraising begins today and continues for the next 36 days.

Please visit my Kickstarter page to read more about Why, Where, What and How.

INCENTIVES

This Kickstarter is a little different to others as I have secured many generous and talented photographers as collaborators who’ve put forth prints to help me raise money. Huge thanks to all of them.

In that there’s only one item for each of the incentive levels above $200, the thing operates like a “buy now”-priced auction.

The incentives at $10, $20, $50, $75 and $125 are self-explanatory.

On my Kickstarter page, the prints available between $200 and $1,000 have full descriptions. Those same descriptions and the currently available images are below.

Every supporter who buys a print more than $200 in value also gets a postcard, mixtape and self-published photobook Prison Photography in the Era of Mass Incarceration (56 pages).

ALL who donate – at any level – become official supporters and have their names listed on my website and in the acknowledgements of the self-published book.

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CLICK ON ANY IMAGE FOR A LARGER VIEW

JAMEL SHABAZZ

Photographer: Jamel Shabazz
Title: ‘Female Blood’
Year: 1995
Print: 8″x10″ Resin Coated B&W print.
Signed.

Print PLUS a postcard, mixtape (CD) and a self-published book – $600 BUY NOW

FRANK MCMAINS

Photographer: Frank McMains
Title: Untitled #1, from ‘Angola Boxing’ series
Year: 2010
Size: 8″x12″
Print: B/W digital print on archival paper
Signed, uneditioned.

Print PLUS a postcard and a mixtape – $100. BUY NOW.

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STEVE DAVIS

Photographer: Steve Davis
Title: Untitled #1, from ‘Captured Youth’ series
Year: 2005
Size: 8″x10″
Print: Color, heavyweight archival paper
Signed, special edition of 4.

Print PLUS a postcard, a mixtape and a self-published book – going for $300. BUY NOW.

Photographer: Steve Davis
Title: Untitled #2, from ‘Captured Youth’ series
Year: 2005
Size: 8″x10″
Print: Color, heavyweight archival paper
Signed, special edition of 4.

Print PLUS a postcard, a mixtape and a self-published book – going for $300. BUY NOW.

Photographer: Steve Davis
Title: Untitled #3, from ‘Captured Youth’ series
Year: 2005
Size: 8″x10″
Print: Color, heavyweight archival paper
Signed, special edition of 4.

Print PLUS a postcard, a mixtape and a self-published book – going for $300. BUY NOW.

Photographer: Steve Davis
Title: Untitled #4, from ‘Captured Youth’ series
Year: 2005
Size: 8″x10″
Print: Color, heavyweight archival paper
Signed, special edition of 4.

Print PLUS a postcard, a mixtape and a self-published book – going for $300. BUY NOW.

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RICHARD ROSS

Harrison County Juvenile Detention Center in Biloxi, Mississippi operated by Mississippi Security Services, formerly the Biloxi City Jail, Currently run by Director Warden. A fire in 1982 killed 27 inmates. There is currently a lawsuit against them which forced them to reduce their population. They must now maintain an 8:1 inmate to staff ratio. © Richard Ross

Photographer: Richard Ross
Title: ’12-year old at Harrison County’
Year: 2009
Size: 9″x12″
Print: Color, Epson digital print on enhanced matt
Signed

Print PLUS, self-published book, postcard and mixtape = $1,000. BUY HERE

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BRUCE JACKSON

Photographer: Bruce Jackson
Title: ‘Dominoes. Death Row, Texas’
Year: 1979
Size: 12.5″x17″ on 13″x19″ paper
Print: B&W, Ilford Gallerie Gold Fibre Silk Paper.
Edition: #3 of an edition of 20
Signed
From Bruce Jackson and Diane Christian, “In this Timeless Time”: Living and Dying on Death Row in America (University of North Carolina Press, 2011)

Print PLUS, self-published book, postcard and mixtape = $800. BUY HERE

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VICTOR BLUE

Gang members of the Mara 18 help another with his wounds in the El Hoyon prison in Escuintla Guatemala Tuesday August 23, 2005. El Hoyon was the scene of a prison riot the week before in which members of a rival gang, the Mara Salvatrucha, killed 23 members of the Mara 18 using firearms, knives, and handgrenades. © Victor Blue.

Photographer: Victor Blue
Title: ‘Closing a Wound, Mara 18’
Year: 2005
Size: 11″x14″
Print: Color, archival print
Signed
Print PLUS, self-published book, postcard and mixtape = $200. BUY HERE

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LORI WASELCHUK

Mary Bloomer, a prison security guard, watches from the levee as prisoners form Field Line 15 from Wolf Dormitory at Camp C at Angola, Louisiana’s maximum security prison. Angola is a massive top-security prison, occupying flat delta land equal to the size of Manhattan.  Prisoners walk or ride in buses to and from their jobs every day. © Lori Waselchuk

Photographer: Lori Waselchuk
Title: ‘Prison Guard Watches from the Levee, Angola Prison’
Year: 2007
Size: 12″ X 24″
Print: B&W, archival pigment print
Edition: #2 of an edition of 15
Signed
Print PLUS, self-published book, postcard and mixtape = $400. BUY HERE

Lloyd Bone, a prisoner at Louisiana’s State Penitentiary, rides atop a horse driven hearse carrying the body of fellow prisoner George Alexander, who died at the age of 56.  The hearse was hand built by prison carpenters. The elaborate funerals for inmates buried in the prison’s cemetery is an example of how hospice volunteers (with the support of Warden Burl Cain) have created a tone of reverence for the dying and the dead at Angola Prison. © Lori Waselchuk

Photographer: Lori Waselchuk
Title: ‘Lloyd Bone Drives the Funeral Hearse’
Year: 2007
Size: 7″ x 14″
Print: B&W, archival pigment print
Edition: #7 of an edition of 25
Signed
Print PLUS, self-published book, postcard and mixtape. SOLD

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JAN STURMANN

Wards offer each other comfort and support before entering the Sweat Lodge. No blood has ever been spilt in the Sweat Lodge area, and gang rivalries and personal disputes are often resolved during this time. Since 1991 Native American Spiritual Leader Jimi Castillo has conducted this ceremony each Thursday at the Herman G. Stark Youth Correctional  Facility in Chino, CA, east of LA. The ceremony is open to all wards, irrespective of race. © Jan Sturmann

Photographer: Jan Sturmann
Title: ‘Juvenile Prison Sweat Lodge’
Year: 2005
Size: 8″x10″
Print: Color, archival inkjet print
Not editioned
Signed
$50

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ARA OSHAGAN

Photographer: Ara Oshagan
Title: ‘Liz, 21 years old, Chowchilla State Prison, CA, 2003’
Year: 2003
Size: 30″x8″
Print: Color and B&W, archival pigment ink print (Giclee)
Edition #2 of 10
Signed
Print PLUS, self-published book, postcard and mixtape = $400. BUY HERE

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STEPHEN TOURLENTES

Photographer: Stephen Tourlentes
Title: Comstock, NY State Prison
Year: 2009
Print: 11″x14″ B&W, Archival Pigment Print
Aritist’s Proof, Signed

Print PLUS, self-published book, postcard and mixtape = $500 – BUY NOW

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SYE WILLIAMS

Photographer: Sye Williams
Title: ‘The Four’
Year: 2001
Size: 11″x14″
Print: Color
1st edition 2/25
Signed
Print PLUS, self-published book, postcard and mixtape = $900. BUY HERE

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ADAM AMENGUAL

Photographer: Adam Amengual
Title: ‘Adrien Caceres’ from the “Homies” series
Year: 2011
Size: 11″x14″
Print: Color, archival inkjet print
Edition #2 of 10
Signed
Print PLUS, self-published book, postcard and mixtape = $750. BUY HERE

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JENN ACKERMAN

Julia Lish, a correctional officer, comforts an inmate during one his psychotic episodes. “Its going to be OK,” she repeats as he cries and yells to the voices in his head. © Jenn Ackermann

Photographer: Jenn Ackerman
Title: ‘A Hand to Hold’ (2008) from the series, Trapped.
Print: 11×14. B&W, archival matte.
Edition: #2 of an edition of 25.
Signed.

Print PLUS, self-published book, postcard and mixtape = $600. BUY HERE

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TIM GRUBER

The sun breaks through the bars of the Nursing and Hospice Care Unit at the Kentucky State Reformatory, as part of the series ‘Served Out.’ © Tim Gruber

Photographer: Tim Gruber
Title: ‘Sunset Behind Bars’
Year: 2008
Print: 14×11″ B&W, archival pigment print on matte paper.
Edition: #1 of an edition of 25.
Signed.

Print PLUS, self-published book, postcard and mixtape = $500. BUY HERE

MAX WHITTAKER

Any photo from Max Whittaker‘s archive, signed and printed at 11″x17″.

Print PLUS, self-published book, postcard and mixtape = $200. BUY HERE

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ADAM SHEMPER

Photographer: Adam Shemper
Title: ‘In the Wheat Fields, Louisiana State Penitentiary, Angola, Louisiana’
Year: 2000
Print: 9″x9″. B&W on archival paper
Signed
Print PLUS, self-published book, postcard and mixtape = $325. BUY HERE

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JON LOWENSTEIN

Photographer: Jon Lowenstein.
Title: Undocumented Mexican Immigrants – Tent City.
Year: 2009.
Print: 11″x 14″ coloor print, on Hannemuehle archival paper.
Signed.

Print, PLUS, self-published book, postcard and mixtape. = $1,000 – BUY HERE

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MIKHAEL SUBOTZKY

Photographer: Incarcerated student of Mikhael Subotzky
Title: Maplank in the Workshop, Pollsmoor Prison, 2005
Year: 2005
Print: Silver gelatin print on fiber paper, B&W 35x50cm (frame approx 50x65cm)
Edition: # 1/9
Unsigned, framed.

Print, PLUS postcard, mixtape and self=published book = $1,000 – BUY HERE

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Please forward the link to this page and my Kickstarter page to anybody whom you think may be interested in the project and potentially donating. Cheers!

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Here’s a YouTube version of my Kickstarter pitch for those of you who can’t embed from any other video sites (don’t worry the WordPress video upgrade is on its way)