Comments on: faces from the Ark pen

faces from the Ark pen

languagehat — Tue, 21 Dec 2004 15:08:35 -0800

Documentarian Bruce Jackson found "a group of about two hundred 3x4" identification photographs made between 1914 and 1937... in a drawer in the Arkansas penitentiary in the summer of 1975"; this (slideshow) is the online record of an exhibition.

It is impossible to look at these images and not think about the persons depicted there. But, save for one fact that is a given—and what we find in or infer from these images—we know nothing about those persons, and never will. The given is that they are all prisoners: for whatever reason, they have been deprived of liberty, the single piece of enduring proof of which is the image at which we presently gaze. The conclusions we draw, the feelings we have, the narratives we suppose—they are all our own. The images are mirrors, resonating with aspects of our selves we perhaps never before encountered.

Many of them are haunting; this one has been turned by time into a work of art. (Via Ramage.)

By: sciurus

sciurus — Tue, 21 Dec 2004 15:14:54 -0800

Oh man, this rocks. It reminds me of Walker Evans. This one is pretty artsy too. Some of them look awfully young to be prisoners.

By: purephase

purephase — Tue, 21 Dec 2004 15:15:24 -0800

[This is good]. My favourite.

By: Rumple

Rumple — Tue, 21 Dec 2004 15:20:02 -0800

Arresting images. [this is good]

By: bcwinters

bcwinters — Tue, 21 Dec 2004 15:27:45 -0800

I kind of think that last one is a woman, sciurus. She could be in her 20s. Maybe she was a con artist, tricking people into believing she was an orphaned pre-teen boy so she could steal their fortunes in the night. Or something.

By: metaculpa

metaculpa — Tue, 21 Dec 2004 15:27:58 -0800

The slideshow without its weird frame.

By: Secret Life of Gravy

Secret Life of Gravy — Tue, 21 Dec 2004 15:40:40 -0800

This one looks quite the saucy minx. I'm wondering if the hat is part of her prison attire? And did they make her little dog go to prison as well?

By: interrobang

interrobang — Tue, 21 Dec 2004 15:46:47 -0800

She has a really low user-number.

By: darkmatter

darkmatter — Tue, 21 Dec 2004 15:49:45 -0800

I love this one. I imagine him as a Confederate veteran. He looks as though he has a strong character.

By: thirteen

thirteen — Tue, 21 Dec 2004 15:53:08 -0800

This kind of bothers me. I guess you give up some right to privacy when you commit a crime, but it seems like these pictures should be destroyed when you have served your sentence, or when a reasonable amount of time has passed.

By: fizz-ed

fizz-ed — Tue, 21 Dec 2004 16:01:10 -0800

Great link. For a moment, I thought that this man was a young Don Knotts.

By: greasy_skillet

greasy_skillet — Tue, 21 Dec 2004 16:02:07 -0800

Great link, thanks!

By: The God Complex

The God Complex — Tue, 21 Dec 2004 16:03:53 -0800

Lovely.

By: KevinSkomsvold

KevinSkomsvold — Tue, 21 Dec 2004 16:11:08 -0800

This is why I like MetaFilter. Thanks Languagehat.

By: jokeefe

jokeefe — Tue, 21 Dec 2004 16:12:04 -0800

Thank you. Wonderfully moving. And speaking of the youthfulness of some of the prisoners...

By: rushmc

rushmc — Tue, 21 Dec 2004 16:34:42 -0800

it seems like these pictures should be destroyed when you have served your sentence, or when a reasonable amount of time has passed. It's not as if a part of your soul is captured therein.

By: thirteen

thirteen — Tue, 21 Dec 2004 16:42:44 -0800

Nor is it like they signed a release, or had any ability to refuse to have these pictures taken. Privacy should trump voyeurism.

By: Ranger03

Ranger03 — Tue, 21 Dec 2004 17:01:14 -0800

I think much the same about old war photos. Here is a link to somewhere I know very well. Just look at the faces, they all appear very old and some really were. In the cemetaries it is easy to find 45 year old men married with children (privates) Don't know where the link went?

By: stavrosthewonderchicken

stavrosthewonderchicken — Tue, 21 Dec 2004 17:23:00 -0800

I am reminded of this. Interesting.

By: stevis

stevis — Tue, 21 Dec 2004 17:52:03 -0800

By: stevis

stevis — Tue, 21 Dec 2004 17:53:44 -0800

this guy is probably what George Clooney's character in "O Brother, Where Art Thou" really looked like.

By: semmi

semmi — Tue, 21 Dec 2004 18:54:13 -0800

or whatever reason, they have been deprived of liberty That reason may be of the essence. Otherwise it's cheap sentimentality.

By: ericb

ericb — Tue, 21 Dec 2004 19:00:09 -0800

There's as much power and expression in these portraits as those captured by photographers like Diane Arbus (particularly her images of asylum inmates), Richard Avedon (in his book "In The American West") and Mike Meyers - better known as Disfarmer. Thanks, sciurus - a great find.

By: ericb

ericb — Tue, 21 Dec 2004 19:04:02 -0800

The portrait which darkmatter references above has hints of Paul Newman.

By: sciurus

sciurus — Tue, 21 Dec 2004 19:05:42 -0800

Don't thank me, thank languagehat.

By: ericb

ericb — Tue, 21 Dec 2004 19:07:50 -0800

Oops ... my mistake ... thanks languagehat. I agree with you on reminders of Walker Evans.

By: cosmonik

cosmonik — Tue, 21 Dec 2004 19:15:42 -0800

Harrowing.

By: onkelchrispy

onkelchrispy — Tue, 21 Dec 2004 19:47:30 -0800

omniously beautiful

By: lobakgo

lobakgo — Tue, 21 Dec 2004 19:57:13 -0800

What amazing faces. Thanks, languagehat. I think the Widelux images are interesting too.

By: thirteen

thirteen — Tue, 21 Dec 2004 20:06:00 -0800

thirteen - i'd take the opposite view. i'm leery of a state where they destroy records of who was incarcerated, for how long, and for what. in the early 20th century in the U.S. South it wasn't unheard of for illiterate, poor people to be convicted and then to disappear into the prison system. Assuming you are right, and we do need those records, why are these files detached from their specific information. How did they manage to end up in the hands of a private citizen who is in a position to exploit them? As records they are meaningless, but the means of obtaining them is nothing but disrespect for the people pictured. It is possible that they were bad people, but decent people do not approve of prison rape as darwinlike justice, and they should not approve of this either.

By: carter

carter — Tue, 21 Dec 2004 21:16:56 -0800

This is wonderful, thanks, languagehat. These pictures vividly recall (anticipate?) for me Deborah Luster's "One Big Self," a series of photographic portraits of Louisiana prisoners etched onto aluminium index-cards, with details of the prisoners engraved on the back. The prisoners chose how they were photographed. What must be hundreds of these cards are stored in a crude, heavy, all-metal card catalogue. You can pull them out of the drawers and look through them, handle them, and arrange them on a small desk. It's very moving (examples, background). It's currently in the San Francisco MOMA.

By: contraposto

contraposto — Tue, 21 Dec 2004 21:32:19 -0800

Amazing stuff - was going to comment on the Disfarmer resemblance of some of them but ericb beat me to it. Thanks, languagehat.

By: moonbird

moonbird — Wed, 22 Dec 2004 04:38:46 -0800

so stunning.

By: rushmc

rushmc — Wed, 22 Dec 2004 06:14:27 -0800

As records they are meaningless, but the means of obtaining them is nothing but disrespect for the people pictured. Why do you put so much emphasis on images of dead people which might much more reasonably be considered part of the historical record? I didn't see you protesting the site that was once posted here that puts up "found" family photos for the world to see, and yet no releases were signed in that case either. I think the burden of proof that the public has no right to such imagery is on you. In fact, I'm not at all clear just at the moment that there is much of an argument to be made that anyone should have a proprietary ownership of any spontaneous or documentary imagery at all (but that's a larger issue).

By: scheptech

scheptech — Wed, 22 Dec 2004 13:08:45 -0800

Excellent, makes me wonder, for most of these folks I guess this is the one and only time they were photographed, never as kids or at work or with family on holidays like many of us today. So now our collective memory of them is as felons, forever captured in only a single moment in time. Almost like whatever crime they committed was the most significant thing they ever did in their lives, I sure hope not.