New Series - Prison Chess

This new series is the first serious documentary project I dared doing.
All pictures were taken in 2008 and 2009 while accompanying Princeton University students to chess events in a maximum security prison in Trenton, New Jersey. What I tried to document was not the events. I focused on portraying the prisoners and their thoughts about the game. I hope you find it interesting.

South New Yorkers

April 2009.

From a walk on Coney Island. CI has a somewhat special atmosphere during off season times. Probably because it is so old and appears so abandoned then. April is somewhere in between. You can already watch people, but it's not as crowded as during summer. I don't know what else to say. People I brought there either appreciated the experience or seriously disliked this place. You have to be there and experience it to do either of those.

Prison Chess Portrait - Miguel Suarez

You can find more about this here.

International Pillow Fight Day

This event is indeed taking place around the world. This is a picture from the San Diego version.

Prison Chess Portrait - Alonzo "Lonnie" Hill

After a longer break, I'm now starting to post prison portraits again. Soon I will have posted everything, and the series will be complete. As usual, here the link with more background information about the project.

Prison Chess: Earl M. Hammud

More information about this project can be found here.

Prison Chess: "Knowledgeable" James

More information about this project can be found here.

Prison Chess Portrait ("Leo" Kimpton)

Prison Chess Portrait (Phillip A. Dixon)

This is the 9th portrait with text.

Prison Chess Portrait (R. Thomas)

This is the 8th portrait of this sort.

Prison Chess Portrait - Janyl Davis

Prison Chess Portrait - A. Gould

Prison Chess Portrait - Christopher Serrone

From what I read, the US is the only place where teenage offenders don't get a second chance. This is the 5th portrait of this series.

The 4th prison chess portrait with text

In case you are wondering, I think I have another 20 or so. Some rather quiet, some more talkative.

Prison Chess Champ

Prisoner Portrait (without name)

First full Prison Chess Portrait

When I step back and look at this blog from a distance, I notice that the mix between colorful cityscapes, people in funny costumes and prisoners is a bit weird.

However, there are many things you can use a camera for, and besides catching nice colors, it can also be a very efficient tool to open up your own eyes for all kinds of things.

For me, that's the beauty of being an amateur. Whether intentionally or not, you can explore the world while hunting for good subjects, and as wider your hunting ground gets, as more you get confronted with people, situations, and places that are usually not part of your life.

Here is a first prisoner portrait.

Prison Chess #14

A little update on the chess project

The visit at the prison Friday morning was fruitful. I took more pictures, and also brought some inmates their picture that I took during the previous event (which was in November last year). This was greatly appreciated and probably motivated some people to answer my questions.
Once I find more time to sit at home on my computer, I will put some things together and post them here.

Prison Chess

Today I will have the chance to complete my prison chess project.

Once again I will accompany a bunch of chess heroes from Princeton to a maximum security prison for another "book smarts vs. street smarts" battle.

I will try to talk to each player to have some text for each image.