Portfolio: Andrew Lichtenstein

by Brian K. Mahoney, November 24, 2008

Andrew Lichtenstein documentation of prisons and incarceration has appeared in books, newspapers and magazines, including Time, US News and World Report, and the New York Times. His series of photographs titled “Witness to an Execution” were inspired by a Sound Portraits radio documentary of the same name that aired on NPR’s “All Things Considered” and won a Peabody Award in 2000. His photographic essays have taken him to Haiti, South Africa, and across the US, exploring poverty, addiction, the prison-industrial complex, and the casualties of war. His work has been published and exhibited in New York and around the world. In 2000 he received a Soros Justice Fellowship from the Open Society Institute. Andrew Lichtenstein’s recently released book, Never Coming Home (Charta, 2007), shows the faces behind the Iraq War casualty statistics. A solo show of Lichenstein’s photos documenting prison life, “Behind Bars,” is on view at Fovea Exhibitions in Beacon through January 4. www.foveaexhibitions.org. Portfolio: www.lichtensteinphoto.com

Safety first
There were a few times when I did feel threatened in a prison. But very, very few. If anything, it is much easier and safer to photograph in a prison than on the street. Prison is a very controlled environment. Random violence is not that common for the simple reason that every action has an immediate consequence, a loss of privileges, more prison time, etc. So when prisoners are violent, it is generally thought out, preplanned.
I found, for the most part, that prisoners were grateful for my interest in what was happening in their closed world. Or more likely, just grateful for something different during the day, a new face, anything to break the endless routine.

Propaganda tour
The one thing the prisoners would always complain about was that on my very brief visit, accompanied by an escort, I was never going to get to see what it was really like. I was just on a propaganda tour. Of course they were right. So the choice was clear enough. Never visit or photograph at all, because of all of the restrictions and constraints, or get what you can. To see prison, to feel prison, I’d have to not be allowed to leave. In that case, I would not be allowed to have a camera.