Attention Deficit Disorder Prosthetic Memory Program

Prison Landscapes

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Prison Landscapes - © Attention Deficit Disorder Prosthetic Memory Program
Prison Landscapes - © Attention Deficit Disorder Prosthetic Memory Program
Prison Landscapes - © Attention Deficit Disorder Prosthetic Memory Program
Prison Landscapes - © Attention Deficit Disorder Prosthetic Memory Program
Prison Landscapes - © Attention Deficit Disorder Prosthetic Memory Program
Prison Landscapes - © Attention Deficit Disorder Prosthetic Memory Program
Prison Landscapes - © Attention Deficit Disorder Prosthetic Memory Program
Prison Landscapes - © Attention Deficit Disorder Prosthetic Memory Program
Prison Landscapes - © Attention Deficit Disorder Prosthetic Memory Program
Prison Landscapes - © Attention Deficit Disorder Prosthetic Memory Program
Prison Landscapes - © Attention Deficit Disorder Prosthetic Memory Program
Prison Landscapes - © Attention Deficit Disorder Prosthetic Memory Program
Prison Landscapes - © Attention Deficit Disorder Prosthetic Memory Program
Prison Landscapes - © Attention Deficit Disorder Prosthetic Memory Program
Prison Landscapes - © Attention Deficit Disorder Prosthetic Memory Program
Prison Landscapes - © Attention Deficit Disorder Prosthetic Memory Program
Prison Landscapes - © Attention Deficit Disorder Prosthetic Memory Program
Prison Landscapes - © Attention Deficit Disorder Prosthetic Memory Program
Prison Landscapes - © Attention Deficit Disorder Prosthetic Memory Program

Monumental collection of photographs by Alyse Emdur of prison inmates representing themselves in front of visiting room backdrops. Such backdrops, often painted by inmates, are used within the prisons as portrait studios. As inmates and their visitors pose for photos in front of these idealized landscapes they pretend, for a brief moment, that they are someplace else. The photographs are given to these visitors as gifts to take home and remember the faces of their loved ones while they are incarcerated.

Prison Landscapes explores this little known and largely physically inaccessible genre of painting and portraiture seen only by inmates, visitors, and prison employees. Created specifically for escape and self-representation, the idealized paintings of tropical beaches, fantastical waterfalls, mountain vistas, and cityscapes invite sitters to perform fantasies of freedom.

Prison Landscapes offers viewers a rare opportunity to see Americas incarcerated population, not through the usual lens of criminality, but through the eyes of inmates loved ones. The collection was inspired by a photograph I found of myself at age five posing in front of a tropical beach scene while visiting my brother in prison. Since discovering this first portrait in my own family album in 2005, I have invited hundreds of prisoners to send me photographs for inclusion in this collection.

Tokyo Olympiad - © Attention Deficit Disorder Prosthetic Memory Program
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Tokyo Olympiad
Big Dumb Object - © Attention Deficit Disorder Prosthetic Memory Program
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Big Dumb Object
Arborglyphs - © Attention Deficit Disorder Prosthetic Memory Program
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Arborglyphs
Goûter Refuge - © Attention Deficit Disorder Prosthetic Memory Program
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Goûter Refuge
US Flag Desecration - © Attention Deficit Disorder Prosthetic Memory Program
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US Flag Desecration
Impossible Color - © Attention Deficit Disorder Prosthetic Memory Program
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Impossible Color
Celebrity Mugshots - © Attention Deficit Disorder Prosthetic Memory Program
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Celebrity Mugshots
Heat Haze - © Attention Deficit Disorder Prosthetic Memory Program
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Heat Haze
Armillaria Ostoyae - © Attention Deficit Disorder Prosthetic Memory Program
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Armillaria Ostoyae
Emerald Cockroach Wasp - © Attention Deficit Disorder Prosthetic Memory Program
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Emerald Cockroach Wasp
Nefertiti Missing Eye - © Attention Deficit Disorder Prosthetic Memory Program
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Nefertiti Missing Eye
Dennis Tito - © Attention Deficit Disorder Prosthetic Memory Program
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Dennis Tito

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