As a documentary photographer, I am used to being impartial and telling
an unbiased story but I found negotiating my visits to prisons
especially challenging.
I have photographed officers, governors,
prisoners and their families. It is important that I am able to connect
with all these different groups (who often have strong opinions about
the other!) and that they view me as trustworthy and neutral so they can
relax and be natural around me. I think this is especially tricky in
prison situations where most people seem to have their ‘guard up’,
but I find it extremely rewarding to be able to break through this.
I enjoy working in prisons because, unlike in the outside world, most
people are not in a rush and have time to spend talking with me. This
enables me to create an image that reflects their true personality.
While everyone’s story is different, there are often are reoccurring
themes relating to poverty, inequalities and abuse. The more time I
have spent in prisons, hearing these stories, the more passionate I have
become about showing the outside world what life is really like within
the closed world of the prison system in a truthful and unglamorous way.
I find it ironic that despite the prison system being state funded,
there is very little public awareness of what the system is really like
and thats partly because there is a lack of honest dialogue in the
outside world.
Andrew Aitchison
