Prison Obscura exhibition at the Parsons School of Design

The travelling exhibition “Prison Obscura” recently opened in the Sheila C. Johnson Design Center's Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Gallery at Parsons School of Design. A journey beyond the stereotypes of a society in the shadows.



“Prison Obscura”, a travelling exhibition curated by Pete Brook, editor of “Prison Photography” is a cooperative effort, part of a broader initiative with Humanities Action Lab (HAL) Global Dialogues in Incarceration, which fosters increased public engagement with the US prison system. Because it’s important not to forget the shadowy part of our society, the world of tough, highly-charged  incarcerations. Places we only know through hackneyed, clichéd stock photos showing razor wire, anonymous silhouettes, hands through prison bars.
"Prison Obscura"  is made possible with the support of the John B. Hurford ‘60 Center for the Arts and Humanities and Cantor Fitzgerald Gallery at Haverford College, Haverford, PA.





Instead, in this exhibition, curator Pete Brook aims to show that we must look beyond appearances and proposes a photographic study through the work of a variety of artists. The exhibition includes an installation created by artist Josh Begley and musician Paul Rucker using Imaging Technology to depict the sheer size of the prison industrial complex which houses 2.3 million Americans in more than 6000 prisons, through to the workshops lead by Steve Davis for incarcerated juveniles in Washington State and Robert Gumpert’s nine-year project pairing portraits and audio recordings; Mark Strandquist used imagery to look into the histories and stories of prisoners and self-representations with collected portraits of prisoners and their families taken during visiting hours were put together by Alyse Emdur.





Imagery that reaches out to visitors thanks to photos that tell a social story, that shed light on this society in the shadows, as Radhika Subramaniam, director and chief curator of the SJDC said: “Prison Obscura visually demonstrates how lives are rendered invisible while also showing us how we might see them again.”

(Christiane Bürklein)

Exhibition: Prison Obscura 
Curator: Pete Brook
Made possible with the support of the John B. Hurford ‘60 Center for the Arts and Humanities and Cantor Fitzgerald Gallery at Haverford College, Haverford, PA
Location: Sheila C. Johnson Design Center's Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Gallery at Parsons School of Design, New York
Dates: 6^th February to 17^th April 2015
Essay & bibliography: http://exhibits.haverford.edu/prisonobscura/essay/