prison

Photography Saved My Life

I'm going to start from the beginning. I didn’t have a bad upbringing. My parents worked hard for our family and always provided for me and my sister. They taught us right from wrong, how to be kind, loving and caring. We weren't rich, but we never ever went without.

Egyptian Photojournalist Facing Death Penalty Wins ‘Press Freedom Prize’

Egyptian photojournalist Mahmoud Abu Zeid, also known as Shawkan, has been awarded the 2018 UNESCO/Guillermo Cano Press Freedom Prize. Shawkan has been in jail since August 2013 after being arrested for covering the August 2013 Rabaa massacre. He's also facing the death penalty after the prosecutor reportedly called for it last year.

I Shot Photos Inside a California State Prison

My name is Pep Williams, and I'm a photographer from Los Angeles. I recently shot a project with the help of Leica called "Out of Bounds." I'm one of the few photographers allowed to shoot inside a California state prison.

After Years in Prison, Man Emerges a Talented Street Photographer

Donato Di Camillo's "how I got into photography" story is different. You won't hear it's like at the camera store check out counter, and we can pretty much guarantee it's nothing like yours. That's because Di Camillo developed his passion for photography behind bars.

Urbex Photographer Threatened with a 15K Euro Fine and Jail Time After Run In With Authorities

The dangers of urban exploration photography are well-known. However, despite this danger, it’s not often we hear of any big names in Urbex photography having major accidents or run-ins with the law. That changed a bit this week when a photographer who goes by the pseudonym The Other Side shared the story of how he was threatened with serious legal consequences for photographing a partially abandoned French factory.

BTS: Photographer Goes on an Adventure to Shoot an Abandoned Prison

Do you enjoy adventure? I mean, REALLY enjoy adventure, not just taking a walk through your local woods. Well, if you do, you'll enjoy this. Put together by photographer Mike Palmer and cinematographer Jon Simonassi, this video shows their journey to photograph an abandoned prison in Ontario, Canada.

Photo Projects That Made For A Better 2013

It’s that time of the year when we all take a moment to reflect back on the major events that will forever be remembered, the trends that changed our zeitgeist, and the pop culture phenomena that will soon be forgotten.

For the photo industry, this was the year that the word “selfie” was coined Webster’s Dictionary’s word of the year. In such a context and with so much of the conversation focused on the mobile photo taking frenzy, it almost started to get a little too easy to overlook the stories out there that, if not for the photograph, would not have been told nor raised in our collective social consciousness.

Photographer Ordered to Stay in Jail After Cheating Wedding Clients

How not to run a wedding photography business: Take deposits from clients, don't show up for the weddings and skip town before the law catches on. That was the strategy employed by Ramon Rodriguez, a Louisville, Kentucky photographer who remains in jail after bilking prospective clients out of $27,000.

Photographer Captures the Experiences of Mentally Ill Prison Inmates

Due to the evaporation of funding that supports mental health facilities, many prisons across the United States have been given the extra duty of treating those who are mentally ill. These patient-prisoners are often trapped within the systems with no where else to go for better treatment.

Trapped is a project by Minneapolis, Minnesota-based photographer Jenn Ackerman that shares the experiences of these prisoners through gritty black-and-white photographs.

American Faces Death Penalty in North Korea for Photos He Took

Korean-American Kenneth Bae made headlines back in November when he was arrested while leading a tour group though the Rason Special Economic Zone in North Korea. The reasons behind the arrest have never been properly confirmed, but it seems that his detainment had something to do with photos he was taking while he was spending time in the country.

No headway has been made in the case since he was taken into custody, but a recent report by the Korean Central News Agency claims that Bae has "admitted that he committed crimes aimed to topple the DPRK," and that he will now be tried in North Korean supreme court for those crimes, the maximum punishment for which is the death penalty.

Ex-Olympus Chief Faces Five Years in Jail For His Role in $1.7 Billion Fraud

Former Olympus president Tsuyoshi Kikukawa may soon spend up to five years of his life in prison for his role in Olympus' massive financial scandal that rocked corporate Japan back in 2011. Prosecutors allege that Kikukawa orchestrated a coverup of $1.7 billion in company losses, one of the biggest frauds in Japanese history and the country's equivalent of America's Enron scandal.

The Idealized Landscape Paintings Found in Prison Visiting Rooms

Prison visiting rooms are often home to large-scale paintings that are enjoyed by only a few. Often created by the inmates themselves, the artworks serve as the photographic backdrops of a portrait studio as inmates pose in front of them for pictures that are given to loved ones as mementos.

Since these intricate drawings are generally only seen by inmates, visitors, and employees, photographer Alyse Emdur decided that she wanted to document them for a wider audience. She spent years creating a project titled Prison Landscapes, featuring photos of these idealized backdrops that, for a moment, transport the inmates to faraway places.