Representations of Prisons in Contemporary French Photography

Melinda Hawtin: Representations of Prisons in Contemporary French Photography

Here is a link to my dissertation. It focuses on representations of prisons in contemporary French photography. The first chapter discusses whether or not the prison can be represented in photography and focuses on some of the visual taboos of the prison whilst questioning whether an image can represent reality. The second chapter considers forensic and police photography and the implications that this type of photography has for creating an understanding of a criminal type and reproducing a sort of confinement. The third and fourth chapters are specifically focused on the themes of prison photography and concern the prison architecture and representations of inmates respectively. In the fourth and final chapter I have also included an analysis of the ethical problems of representing the prison.

The photographers that I have referred to throughout this dissertation are as follows:

Mathieu Pernot, Jean Gaumy, Philippe Bazin, Jean-Marc Bodson, Gaël Turine, Hugues de Wurstemberger, Jacqueline Salmon, Jane Evelyn Atwood and Léa Crespi