March 22, 2007
The Chain, The Maze, The Dirty, The Incarcerated
Magnum Photos
Documenting the conditions of detention centers is not a novel preoccupation of Magnum photographers, nor is reflecting on the philosophy versus the reality of incarceration. Donovan Wylie, Chien Chi Chang, Carl de Keyzer, Alex Majoli and Jean Gaumy have all produced books related to this topic.
Tearsheet from Donovan Wylie's 2004 book 'The Maze.'
For nearly 30 years, the Maze prison, ten miles outside Belfast, played a unique role in the Northern Ireland troubles. Built in 1976, it became a microcosm of the struggle between loyalists and republicans, with prisoners segregated in the infamous H-Blocks according to their political beliefs and membership of paramilitary organizations. It was the scene of violent protests, hunger strikes, mass escapes and deaths of both prisoners and prison staff.
Read more about Donovan Wylie's book 'The Maze'
The Magnum Store.
Kaohsiung, Taiwan. 1998. Mental patients at the Lung-Fa Tang Temple. Chien-Chi Chang/Magnum Photos
The Long Fa Tang Temple in southern Taiwan is both a sanctuary and a prison for 700 mental patients. The temple administers neither medications nor treatments used in other such institutions. Instead, the Buddhist monks and nuns who oversee the patient population employ chains for "therapeutic" purposes.
Learn more about Chien Chi Chang's book 'The Chain'
The Magnum Store.
Caen, France. 1076. Prisoners exercising in the walking court of a prison. Jean Gaumy/Magnum Photos
For three years Jean Gaumy photographed daily life in a few ordinary French prisons: Saint-Martin de Ré, Caen, Rouen, Melun. He worked freely and frankly, if not with no difficulty, with prisoners who were photographed only with their agreement. What interests him foremost is making pictures worthy of the human beings: with quiet certitude, thirty-nine pictures testify to this patient three-year long work.
Learn more about Jean Gaumy's book 'Les Incarceres'
The Magnum Store.
Dodecanese islands, Greece. 1995. Inside the psychiatric hospital. Alex Majoli/Magnum Photos.
"All I know about Leros is in this book. I know that this is another story about crazy people, many crazy people, more than 4,000 at first. I know that 'Leros' means dirty, and that they came to this island from all over Greece, chosen from among the worst cases, the ones they'd given up on in the psychiatric hospitals. I know that they were housed in an ex-military base on the island, which had previously been used as a jail for all political prisoners.
Learn more about Alex Majoli's book 'Leros'
The Magnum Store.
Prison camp 6 in former Gulags in the Krasnoyarsk region, Siberia, Russia. Carl De Keyzer/Magnum Photos.
Carl De Keyzer took this journey to photograph the prisons today in Siberia. With two army colonels as his shadows, one to the left and one to the right, he photographed what he was allowed to see, and no more. But in place of dark concealment, he has instead revealed a kind of winter wonderland, a Disneyland where all normal credibility is suspended.
Learn more about Carl de Keyzer's book Zona
The Magnum Store.
Other features on detention include Danny Lyon's 'USA. Texas Department of Corrections,' Lise Sarfati's 'RUSSIA. Ikcha. Colony for reeducation,' Paolo Pellegrin's multimedia essay 'Guantanamo' produced by Tia Dunn/Magnum In Motion, Bruce Davidson's 'The Tombs,' and Jim Goldberg's High Desert State Prison.
Published on the Magnum Blog on March 22, 2007
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