A dance student at Central California Women's Facility, practicing a leap.

Peter Merts

mail@petermerts.com 415-306-1272 United States

Topics of Focus

Social justice and other humanitarian causes, including prison arts programming.

Geographic Areas of Focus

based in San Franciso, CA; will travel

Biography

During several decades of photography, Peter has practiced both fine art and documentary projects. His current primary effort is documentation of art students in California prisons.

He has exhibited at Alcatraz Island (San Francisco), Photoville (Los Angeles) and Encuentros Abiertos de Fotografia (Buenos Aires); and published in The New York Times, The EconomistNewsweek Online, Conde Nast Traveller MagazineGeo Saisson (Germany), Foto Mundo (Argentina), Pozytyw (Poland), and The Sunday Review (The Independent, UK).

Peter has self-published a number of books, including Paths of Discovery: Art Practice and Its Impact in California Prisons (with Dr. Larry Brewster) and Unbound! The Passion of Incarcerated Artists.

Follow Peter Merts

Exhibits on SocialDocumentary.net Country No. of Visits Year(s)

A Creative Solution: Art Practice in Californ...

This project shows incarcerated men and women creating and performing artworks in California prisons...

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United States 708 2014 - 2023

Incarcerated Artists

These photos show California prison inmates participating in art classes, which research has demonst...

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United States 543 2006 - 2019