MICHAL CHELBIN: Sailboats and Swans

  Sailboats and Swans • Twin Palms Publishers

Text by the novelist A.M. Homes

 Photograph (c)Michal Chelbin

  Photograph (c)Michal Chelbin

Photograph (c)Michal Chelbin

 

twin palms publishers

Sailboats and Swans Michal Chelbin's latest body of photography, shot in seven prisons in the Ukraine and Russia over the past six years, explores what it means to be locked and constantly watched. With text by the novelist A.M. Homes, one hundred twenty pages.

CRUEL AND UNUSUAL: Prison Photography Noorderlicht Gallery

PREVIEW NEWSPRINT CATALOG HERE
Buy It Here

Cruel and Unusual is a curatorial collaboration between guest curators Pete Brook and Hester Keijser. The exhibition showcases the work of Araminta de Clermont, Amy Elkins, Alyse Emdur, Christiane Feser, Jane Lindsay, Deborah Luster, Nathalie Mohadjer, Yana Payusova, Lizzie Sadin, Lori Waselchuk, and others.

Cruel and Unusual
18 February - 1 April, 2012
Noorderlicht Gallery
9711 JB Groningen, Netherlands

Photograph © ARAMINTA DE CLERMONT
Series: Life After. Title: Passport (Achmed), 2008

CRUEL AND UNUSUAL:
Prison Photography Exhibition
Part I + Part II

Prison Photography's Pete Brook
Talks Blogs, Prisons, Road Trips and Photography
February 18th 4:00 - 6:00 pm

CRUEL AND UNUSUAL: Prison Photography Exhibition Part II

Photograph © Stephen Tourlentes

Series: Of Lengths and Measures. Year: Ongoing (1996-present)

Title: Comstock, NY State Prison.Year: 2009

Photograph © Joseph Rodriguez
Series: Juvenile. Title: Juvenile Hall Intake

Photograph © Lizzie Sadin

Series: Mineurs en Peines. Year: 1999-2007. Title: Surveillance camera, Black Canyon School, Arizona. Video surveillance of solitary confinement cells where young inmates can be held for a week. They are placed there if they display aggressive behavior to either staff or inmates or attempt suicide.

Photograph © Lloyd Degrane

Stateville in a basement storage area- Electric Chairs (no longer in use) one from the State the other from Cook County- during an electrocution a prisoner's hair would catch fire and sometimes their eyeballs would melt, so a helmet, on each chair, was placed onto their heads so that witnesses wouldn't be subjected to such visual horror –1993.

Photograph © Scott Houston

Series: Chain Gang. Year: 2003. Brian Gawlik looks out the window of his cell at Estrella Jail after performing chain gang duty. Brian was convicted for possession of a " dime bag of weed" and sentenced to four months. During lock down, inmates stay in 8x12 foot cells for 23 hours a day unless they are out on assigned chain gang duty.

Photograph © Richard Ross

Series: Juvenile-In-Justice. Year: 2006-2011

"Time-out room” in the education wing, South Bend
Juvenile Correctional Facility, South Bend, Indiana

"Prisons are "home" for over 9 million people on this planet, and their numbers are likely to increase in the coming decades. As Curators, we hope this show will act as a moment to ask ourselves what our different societies should hope to achieve by (mass) incarcerating those who transgress." – Curators Pete Brook and Hester Keijser

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Cruel and Unusual is a curatorial collaboration between guest curators Pete Brook and Hester Keijser. The exhibition showcases the work of Araminta de Clermont, Amy Elkins, Alyse Emdur, Christiane Feser, Jane Lindsay, Deborah Luster, Nathalie Mohadjer, Yana Payusova, Lizzie Sadin, Lori Waselchuk, and others.

Noorderlicht Gallery is producing a 'must-have' catalog for Cruel and Unusual, designed as a newspaper by Pierre Derks in an edition of 4,000. Along with visuals from the main exhibition, the catalog contains articles, interviews, ephemera and material from photographers Pete Brook encountered during his crowd-funded road-trip through the U.S (here), capturing the chaos, interactions and visual excitement he saw in photographers’ studios, contact-sheets and home-towns while on the road.

Newspaper Catalog Available Here

Cruel and Unusual
18 February - 1 April, 2012
Noorderlicht Gallery
9711 JB Groningen, Netherlands

Prison Photography's Pete Brook

Talks Blogs, Prisons, Road Trips and Photography

February 18th 4:00 - 6:00 pm

CRUEL AND UNUSUAL: Prison Photography Part I here

CRUEL AND UNUSUAL: Prison Photography Exhibition Part I

Photograph © Deborah Luster
Series: 'One Big Self: Prisoners of Louisiana.' Year: 1999 - 2003
Title: Cowboy, Louisiana State Penitentiary. Year: 1999.
Courtesy Jack Shainman Gallery
read more

Photograph © Jane Lindsay
Series: Gems. Year: 2011 - ongoing
Tintypes, cast resin, bottlecaps
read more

Photograph © Steve Davis
Series: Captured Youth. Year: 2000-2005.
Title: 10, 11, 12, 13 & 14, Green Hill. Year: 2000
read more

Photograph © Nathalie Mohadjer

Series: The Dungeon. Year: 2009. The prisoners receive no food by the government in these detention cells. Some prisoners have no food for weeks and they beg the others to get the left over’s. Cibitoke, Burundi. read more

Photograph © Jon Lowenstein

Series: Tent City. Josue Enrique Vargas, Michoacan, Mexico worked as a home painter in the United States. He had been in the United States for five years when he was picked up for a DUI (drunk driving) arrest. read more

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Cruel and Unusual is a curatorial collaboration between guest curators Pete Brook and Hester Keijser. The exhibition showcases the work of Araminta de Clermont, Amy Elkins, Alyse Emdur, Christiane Feser, Jane Lindsay, Deborah Luster, Nathalie Mohadjer, Yana Payusova, Lizzie Sadin, Lori Waselchuk, and others.

"Cruel and Unusual looks at how prison systems are depicted and what those depictions tell us. As taxpayers and empathetic humans, how well informed are we of the lives and experiences within penal institutions? How are images of locked facilities manufactured, distributed and consumed? United by what might be considered a limiting subject matter, the exhibited photographers employ a wide range of approaches, materials and techniques, depending on the amount of access granted, and varying from vernacular photography, alternative processes, texts, painted photos, digital manipulations to straight black and white documentary."

"In the U.S. the expense and failure of prisons has come under increasing scrutiny since the global economic recession. Over a period of just 40 years, failed 'tough on crime' policies, sensationalist TV media, prison privatization, and a misinformed public contributed a near 500% increase of the U.S. prison population. Recent arms trade figures show heavy investments in military crowd control systems across Africa, the wider Middle East and beyond. Incarceration is one of the many instruments put into place by states fearing popular revolts and riots threatening their internal stability."

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"Cruel and Unusual refers to a long-established legal term that first appeared in the 1689 English Bill of Rights. Adopted in the late 18th century as part of the U.S. Constitution, the 8th Amendment declares: “Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.” In 1958, the U.S. Supreme Court stated that understanding of "cruel and unusual punishments" should change over time, being those punishments which offend society's "evolving sense of decency."

Newspaper Catalog Available Here

Cruel and Unusual
18 February - 1 April, 2012
Noorderlicht Gallery
9711 JB Groningen, Netherlands

Prison Photography's Pete Brook
Talks Blogs, Prisons, Road Trips and Photography
February 18th 4:00 - 6:00 pm

CRUEL AND UNUSUAL: Prison Photography Part II

Text courtesy of the curators and the Noorderlicht Gallery

LORI WASELCHUK: Grace Before Dying

Photograph (c) Lori Waselchuk from her series Grace Before Dying

A person is a person through another person. My humanity is caught up, bound up, inextricably, with yours.–Desmond Tutu

Grace Before Dying
PHOTOGRAPHS BY LORI WASELCHUCK
November 3 - January 12
Umbrage Gallery, 111 Front St, Dumbo

DANNY LYON: Backs Prison Photography Project

Ramsey Prison Cell Block, Texas Prison, 1968

Photograph (c) DANNY LYON

Signed: Danny Lyon, Six Wing Cell Block, Texas 1968 (verso)

Negative made 1968, 11x14" printed 1995

Prison Photography On The Road

"This is a 1995 modern print made by Kelton. The negative was made by me in 1968. Ramsey Prison Cell Block, Texas Prison, 1968 was published on p.121 of Conversations with the Dead, with the caption ‘Six Wing Cell Block’. List the selling price as $1,750.00. The whole point is to get money for your project.–Danny Lyon to Pete Brook

Join Danny Lyon
BACK THIS PROJECT
here

PETE BROOK: 'Prison Photography' On The Road Kickstarter Project

Photograph (c) Jan Sturmann,
from the series Juvenile Prison Sweat Lodge, 2005
8″x10″ color, archival inkjet print. Not editioned. Signed, $50

Photograph (c) Steve Davis
Untitled #1 (Girl with statue), from the series Captured Youth
8x10 on a 10x12 heavyweight archival paper, $300
Special Edition of 4. Signed, $300

Photograph (c) Steve Davis,
Untitled #2 (Boy in green), from the series Captured Youth
8x10 on a 10x12 heavyweight archival paper, $300
Special Edition of 4. Signed, $300

Photograph (c) Lori Waselchuk
Prison Guard Watches from the Levee, Angola Prison, 2007
from her series Grace Before Dying
12″ X 24″ B&W, archival pigment print.
Edition: #2 of an edition of 15. Signed, $400

Photograph (c) Jenn Ackerman
A Hand to Hold, 2008, from the series Trapped
11x14. B&W, archival matte. Edition #2 of an edition of 25. Signed, $600

Photograph (c) Tim Gruber
Sunset Behind Bars, 2008, from the series Served Out
14x11" B&W, archival pigment print on matte paper
Edition #1 of an edition of 25. Signed, $500

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ABOUT PETE BROOK'S KICKSTARTER PROJECT

Pete Brook

Photograph (c) Tim Matsui

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I was honored to be the inaugural Interview by Pete Brook for Wired Raw File's new series, Raw Meet, published six days ago. I first met Pete at the Rubin Museum in New York and over scribbled notes, we became friends.

Pete Brook is from Lancashire, England, now settled in Seattle, Washington. He's a freelance writer, lead-blogger for Wired Magazines Raw File, and author/editor of his own Prison Photography blog. This year Prison Photography was listed as one of the 10 Best Photoblogs by the British Journal of Photography and LIFE.com recognized it with a Best Photo Blog Award.

And now, Pete Brook needs our help funding his time-sensitive Kickstarter project, Prison Photography' on the Road: Stories Behind the Photos, "a 12-week road-trip across America meeting many of the leading photographers who, in the past 40 years, have documented the rise of the U.S. prison industrial complex. He'll also be speaking with some of the leading practitioners in prison arts, prison education and advocacy." Here is a complete list of the over 40 photographers to be interviewed including Danny Lyon, Deborah Luster and Lori Waselchuk, among others.

PLAY PETE'S KICKSTARTER VIDEO

Buy a Print • Pledge $10 up to $1,000

INCENTIVES: This Kickstarter is a little different to others as Pete secured many generous and talented photographers as collaborators who’ve put forth prints to help him raise money. In that there’s only one item for each of the incentive levels above $200, the thing operates like a “buy now”-priced auction. The incentives at $10, $20, $50, $75 and $125 are self-explanatory.

On his Kickstarter page, the prints available are between $200 and $1,000. Every supporter who buys a print more than $200 in value also gets a postcard, mix-tape and self-published photobook Prison Photography in the Era of Mass Incarceration (56 pages). ALL who donate – at any level – become official supporters and have their names listed on his website and in the acknowledgements of the self-published book.

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"This is a journalism project, the product of which is the approximately 40 interviews I will conduct. They’ll be made available, via Creative Commons license, to any and all in the photo and prison reform communities. In addition, my writings will be free to distribute with attribution to interested parties." – Pete Brook, 'Prison Photography' on the Road

LA to NY: New Orleans, NM, TX, CO, AZ, MA, WI, UT, WY...X's mark some of the over 40 stops Pete Brook will make across 8,000 miles of America "to conduct interviews with the most creative, unique and celebrated Photographers who, through their work in prisons, have shaped America's visual culture and the debate on U.S. criminal justice." – KICKSTARTER Prison Photography' on the Road: Stories Behind the Photos

ABOUT PETE BROOK'S KICKSTARTER PROJECT

Back This Project • Pledge $10 up to $1,000

MARK JENKINSON: On Death Row

Lethal Injection Chamber, (Executioner's view), Huntsville, TX
Photograph (c) Mark Jenkinson /All Rights Reserved

Colonel Donald Hocutt, (ret.) Executioner, Parchman State Penitentiary, Mississippi Photograph (c) Mark Jenkinson /All Rights Reserved

Gas Chamber, Carson City, NV
Photograph (c) Mark Jenkinson /All Rights Reserved

Lethal Injection Chamber, Angola, LA
Photograph (c) Mark Jenkinson /All Rights Reserved

Shareef Cousin, on his first day on Death Row, Angola, LA
Photograph (c) Mark Jenkinson /All Rights Reserved

I photographed Shareef on his first day on Death Row. He was seventeen years old. It later came to light that witnesses who were able to exonerate Shareef were not allowed to testify at his first trial. Eventually he was granted a new trial and the D. A. declined to retry him. After three years on Death Row, the murder charges against Shareef were dismissed.

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Mark Jenkinson's editorial, corporate and advertising photography, an estimated 30,000 plus photographs, have been published in virtually every major magazine in the world. He's won numerous awards including the Meade, AR 100, and Society of Publication Design awards. His photographs have been exhibited at the International Museum of Photography at the George Eastman House, San Francisco Art Institute, Light Gallery, Daniel Wolf Gallery, O.K. Harris Gallery, Parsons School of Design, Rhode Island School of Design, Cooper Union and others. He teaches in the Photography and Imaging Department at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts.

Jenkinson spent over ten years photographing on America's Death Row. "This project began as an outgrowth of my "Hidden Interiors" project, starting with photographs of execution sites. Eventually I became consumed with the subject of capital punishment and began a long term personal project photographing convicted murders, families of victims, executioners, and prosecutors. Most of this project has been financed by my commercial work, but a few magazines (Esquire, German Playboy, Newsweek and Time) have commissioned major features of the subject. I started the project as a death penalty abolitionist, but have come to understand that the issues are not the abstract arguments I started with. The issues became far more complex and personal once you spend time with a parent whose child had been brutally murdered, an inmate who's facing a fast approaching date with death, or a Warden who has been charged with executing a man he believes to be innocent. Nothing is so simple except that is final."

MARK JENKINSON WEBSITE
Mark Jenkinson's Blog Photography Essentials