Posing in Prison: Family Photographs, Emotional Labor, and Carceral Intimacy

In: Public culture, Band 27, Heft 3, S. 487-511

Abstract

"Posing in Prison" examines vernacular photography and studio portraiture taken inside US prisons through an investigation of the production practices and the circulation of these images in and out of prisons. The photographs include images that document family visits to incarcerated relatives and portraits taken by incarcerated photographers in makeshift studios designed in prison. The article considers how such photographs function as practices of intimacy and belonging for those imprisoned and their loved ones.