Prison Nation

By Suzanne Révy

Stephen Tourlentes’ large scale black and white landscapes are cloaked in night air and glow with mysterious light. They are both sublime and unsettling. Why?  The answer is simple: ambient light that reaches heavenward is generated by large prison complexes found in remote locations far from public view. What goes on in these institutions? With over two million people currently incarcerated in this country, another three million on probation and a further eight hundred thousand on parole, prisons are a booming business. Prison Nation, featuring works by thirteen photographers and two collections of vernacular pictures looks squarely at the often perverse and brutal treatment of these millions. Organized by Nicole R. Fleetwood and Michael Farmighetti for the Aperture Foundation, it is currently on view at the Davis Museum at Wellesley College through June 5th, 2022. 

“Wyoming State Death House Prison, Rawlins, WY” by Stephen Tourlentes, 2000, courtesy of the artist, Carroll & Sons, Boston, MA and the Davis Museum, Wellesley, MA.

Prison photographs made in Texas and Arkansas, 1965-78 by Bruce Jackson. (Installation photograph by Suzanne Révy)

Cameras are frequently banned from use by inmates, so these institutions are shrouded in visual mystery. Prison Nation aims to illuminate the conditions that millions of prisoners endure throughout their sentences. Hard labor is a regular feature, and the photographs made in prisons in Louisiana and Texas by Bruce Jackson from the 1960’s and ’70’s resemble nothing short of enslavement. In fact, several of the prisons he photographed are situated on former plantations where the scourge of slavery is somehow embedded within the landscape. In addition, the duo of Chandra McCormick and Keith Calhoun have photographed the physical work practices at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola over several decades. They note that convicted prisoners are exempt from the 13th Amendment which abolished slavery in 1865. Nonetheless, they endow their subjects with dignity in spite of the depraved conditions in which they work and live. 

“Men working in the fields, Angola Prison” by Keith Calhoun, 1980 (left) “Line Boss, Angola Prison” by Chandra McCormick, 2004. (Installation photograph by Suzanne Révy)

“Mary Bell (Anna)” by Deborah Luster from the passion play The Life of Jesus Christ, performed at the Louisiana State Penitentiary, Angola, courtesy of the artist, Jack Shainman Gallery, NYC and the Davis Museum, Wellesley, MA.

The exhibition is emotionally challenging, but there are glimmers of hope: Deborah Luster’s striking black and white portraits of inmates who acted in The Life of Jesus Christ, a passion play performed for the pubic at the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola; Lucas Foglia’s moment of levity between inmates in the Greenhouse Program at the Riker’s Island complex in New York City. Access to nature or making art are humanizing activities that are largely unavailable to the incarcerated. The impulse to make art using soap and bed linens by Jesse Krimes struck me as an particularly creative and subversive coping mechanism. 

“Vanessa and Lauren watering, the GreenHouse Program at Rikers Island” by Lucas Foglia, 2014, courtesy of the artist, Fredericks & Freiser Gallery, NYC and the Davis Museum, Wellesley, MA.

A selection of vernacular snapshots from the collection of exhibit curator Nicole R. Fleetwood, made during family visits, poignantly reveals the challenges for the relatives of those who are in jail. And several large format negatives made over the decades by guards in California’s San Quentin Prison are both illuminating and at times mysterious. Lacking detailed written context, Nigel Poor, who taught a History of Photography class at the prison, found negatives and then scanned them to better understand the circumstances and day to day routines of the jail in the past. Her podcast, Ear Hustle, offers a haunting audio component to these pictures. 

Prints made from found 4″x5″ negatives at San Quentin Prison by Nigel Poor. (Installation photograph by Suzanne Révy)

“Terror Card III” by Jesse Krimes, 2009, image transfer, prison issue soap, prison issue bedsheets, courtesy of the artist and Malin Gallery, NYC. (Installation photograph by Suzanne Révy)

Redemption seems all but impossible, but it is addressed in Zora J. Murff’s empathetic work of incarcerated teens whose identities she obscured at Linn County Juvenile Detention or in Jamel Shabazz’s pictures made while he worked as a guard at Rikers Island in the early 1980’s. Both photographers address the role that race plays in incarceration and present sitters who are defiantly dignified. Perhaps most poignant are portraits made in a transitional shelter in Los Angeles by Joseph Rodriguez, who grappled with re-entry after his own sentence. His elegant black and white portraits reveal both the hardened edges and the humanity in faces of ex-convicts facing ostracism.

“Demetrius and Frank at 15” by Zora J. Murff from the series Corrections, courtesy of the artist and the Davis Museum, Wellesley, MA.

“No Disrespect, Manhattan Courts” 1997 (left) and “A detainee from Brooklyn stands in the corridor of his housing area, Rikers Island” 1986 by Jamel Shabazz. (Installation photograph by Suzanne Révy)

Visitors are urged to contemplate the problems in our justice system, how minor offenses feed a hungry industry, and how brutal treatment exacerbates criminal problems. There are, however, no prescriptions offered, so the issues remain daunting. Viewers might ask  themselves, are we really solving economic, social or criminal issues when we incarcerate millions of people? Do we apply the law fairly? Are punishments for non-violent offenses too harsh? Is our justice system racist? How will history judge an industry that continues to enslave human beings?

“At Walden House FOTEP (Female Offender Treatment Employment Program), a young mother holds her son, El Monte, CA” by Joseph Rodriguez. (Installation photograph by Suzanne Révy)

The exhibition includes works by Stephen Tourlentes, Chandra McCormick and Keith Calhoun, Joseph Rodriguez, Deborah Luster, Zora J. Murff, Lucas Foglia, Bruce Jackson, Jack Lueders-Booth, Sable Elyse Smith, Emily Kinni, Jamel Shabazz, and Jesse Krimes with selections from the collections of exhibit curator Nicole R. Fleetwood and photography professor Nigel Poor. 

For more information: https://www.wellesley.edu/davismuseum