Life after Life in Prison: The Bedroom Project
Photographer: Sara Bennett
Exhibit Title: Life after Life in Prison: The Bedroom Project
Location: United States
The Bedroom Project comprises 32 portraits of formerly incarcerated women, who spent anywhere from 14 to 37-1/2 years in prison.
The images are 20” x 24” pigment prints. Below the images are reproductions of the subjects' handwritten statements, providing glimpses of their lives both inside and outside prison.
For the past 9 years, I have been photographing formerly incarcerated women in their bedrooms. All were convicted of serious crimes — mostly homicide — and spent fourteen to thirty-seven years in a maximum-security prison. By the time they came up for parole they were all profoundly changed, yet most of them were repeatedly denied release because of the crimes they had committed decades earlier
These women were open and trusting enough to allow me into their most private spaces — their bedrooms — and to share the handwritten comments that accompany the photos. Like me, they hope this work will shed light on the pointlessness of extremely long sentences and arbitrary parole denials, and thus help their friends still in prison: women (and men) like them who deserve a chance at freedom.
Sara Bennett
Brooklyn, NY
718-965-9642
sarabennettsarabennett@gmail.com
sarabennett.org
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