It is the humanity in the inhuman humorless situation that I have tried to confront in these images. From 1981–83, I had the unique opportunity alongside a colleague, Barbara Yaley, to photograph and interview the men at San Quentin State Prison, which at that time was a maximum security facility. For approximately two years, we were provided access to the prison and to the men locked up inside. For a while, in the minimum security block of the prison some prisoners were allowed to decorate their cells with fish tanks and pillows, typewriter bookshelves from home, and bartered items, but when a new warden took over the prison these cells were all stripped bare. I was able to produce a portfolio of life-sized, 48-inch portraits that would tour the country. Many of these photos, as well as other documentary images, were used in a monumental case, which improved the conditions in San Quentin. In a very small way, some of the images I made there contributed to winning that case.
“Thank you for the picture it brings back memories I was thinking of you and not sure if I could say hi now. It was a dangerous place there sometimes but you learned respect for other people. I was very young in there and the day I started doing time time stop for me. my body got older but my mind never got older it was almost like time just stop when I left there my mind was still 18 but I was 27 years old and still thinking like a teenager I think you understand what I mean I hope you and your family are well. I will be 62 years old in march. My brother never got out of prison life he will be about 66 now.” —Tom Cameron, October 2022 (top center image, on the far right)
The photographs in this series are 48 x 48 inches.
