Posing in Prison

"Posing in Prison" examines vernacular photography and studio portraiture that take place inside U.S. prisons through an investigation of the production practices and the circulation of these images in and out of prisons. The photographs include images that document family visits to incarcerated relatives and portraits taken by incarcerated photographers in makeshift studios designed by prisoners. The article considers how such photographs function as practices of intimacy and attachment for incarcerated subjects and their loved ones.Nicole R. Fleetwood is an associate professor of American Studies and director of the Institute for Research on Women at Rutgers University, New Brunswick. She is the author of Troubling Vision: Performance, Visuality and Blackness (U Chicago P, 2011). Her current book is a study of prison art and visuality in the era of mass incarceration.