This week, a stunning new exhibit, Slavery, The Prison Industrial Complex: Photographs by Keith Calhoun and Chandra McCormick, co-presented with OSI-Baltimore, opens at the Baltimore Museum of Art.
For more than 30 years, Calhoun and McCormick, photographers who were both born and raised in New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward and were previously Open Society Foundations Katrina Media Fellows, documented life in the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, known as “The Farm.” As the BMA website explains, “this exhibit includes poignant photographs and videos that record the exploitation of men incarcerated in the maximum-security prison farm while also showcasing their humanity and individual narratives.”
Staff from OSI’s Criminal and Juvenile Justice Program worked with the BMA to provide context that appears in the exhibit and will inform educational events during the exhibit that connect Calhoun and McCormick’s work with the injustices of mass incarceration nationally and in Maryland. On September 5th, OSI and the BMA will co-present a panel discussion with the artists, Tara Huffman, director of OSI’s Criminal and Juvenile Justice Program, Monica Cooper of the Maryland Justice Project, an OSI-Baltimore grantee, and others.
