Most prisons and jails across the United States do not allow prisoners to have access to cameras. At a moment when 2.2 million people are incarcerated in the US, 3.8 million people are on probation, and 870,000 former prisoners are on parole, how can images tell the story of mass incarceration when the imprisoned don’t have control over their own representation? Organized with the scholar Nicole R. Fleetwood, an expert on art’s relation to incarceration, the Spring issue of Aperture magazine addresses the unique role photography plays in creating a visual record of a national crisis.
“Prison Nation” will be accompanied by a related exhibition from February 7 through March 7, 2018, as well as a series of six public programs—featuring speakers such as Nigel Poor, Jamel Shabazz, Deborah Luster, Bruce Jackson, Jesse Krimes, Sable Elyse Smith, Joseph Rodriguez, and more—all to take place at Aperture Foundation’s gallery.
Aperture magazine’s “Prison Nation” issue was funded with generous lead support from the Reba Judith Sandler Foundation. Additional funding for the magazine is provided by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and the Board of Trustees and Members of Aperture Foundation. Additional public funds are from the National Endowment for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature, and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.
FRONT
Agenda
Sally Mann, Being: New Photography 2018, Sory Sanlé, Zineb Sedira
Backstory
Simon Baker on Man Ray
On Portraits
Geoff Dyer on Garry Winogrand
Dispatches
Haleh Anvari on Tehran
Curriculum
by Gregory Halpern
BACK
Aperture Beat
Object Lessons
Stereograph of Sing Sing Prison, ca. 1860s
WORDS
Editors’ Note: Prison Nation
Truth & Reconciliation
Bryan Stevenson in Conversation with Sarah Lewis
The Mug Shot: A Brief History
by Shawn Michelle Smith
Bruce Jackson: On the Inside
by Brian Wallis
Behind These Prison Walls
Jamel Shabazz and Lorenzo Steele, Jr. in Conversation with Zarinah Shabazz
Marking Time
by Nicole R. Fleetwood
Solitary Resistance
Jesse Krimes in Conversation with Hank Willis Thomas
Prison Index
by Pete Brook
PICTURES
Jack Lueders-Booth
Introduction by Christie Thompson
Lucas Foglia
Introduction by Jordan Kisner
Deborah Luster
Introduction by Zachary Lazar
Nigel Poor
Introduction by Rebecca Bengal
Sable Elyse Smith
Introduction by Jessica Lynne
Joseph Rodriguez
Introduction by Reginald Dwayne Betts
Zora J Murff
Introduction by Ruby Tapia
Emily Kinni
Introduction by Virginia Grise
Stephen Tourlentes
Introduction by Mabel O. Wilson
- Aperture 230: Prison Nation
- Publisher: Aperture; Gld edition (March 6, 2018)
- Language: English
- Paperback: 128 pages
- ISBN-10: 1597114332
- ISBN-13: 9781597114332
- Item Weight: 1.83 pounds
- Dimensions: 9.25 x 0.5 x 12 inches