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© Sebastian Friedman

A reader got in touch recently to point me in the direction of Sebastian Friedman’s work Segurismos. Friedman deals with self-imposed imprisonment of individuals and families brought on by their personal wealth above and beyond the norms of their “host” society.

Sure there are elements of humor to the work, but also a great misfortunes. When I have visited countries with economic inequality and histories of instability, I wonder if I’d put myself behind bars too. (I have stayed in what could only be described as “compounds” in both Cochabamba and La Paz in Bolivia). I conclude, in a similar position of wealth, I would probably lock myself up too.

I imagine that the peculiar stresses of living behind “voluntary” bars become normative after an amount of time, especially if one considers in how many cities across the globe in which these simplistic security measures are put in place?

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Thomas Locke Hobbs (who offered the tip for this post) has been featuring some interesting work from South America on his blog recently, notably Felipe Russo, Cyrille Weiner, Marcos Lopez, and Pietro Paolini.