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Islanders have been invited to go behind the scenes of the female wing at HMP La Moye.
An exhibition of photographs taken by female prisoners at HMP La Moye has opened at the Arts Centre, offering an insight into inmates’ daily lives – with images exploring themes of hope amid an overarching sense of confinement.
Fences, wires, and a muted colour palette are set against hopeful subjects, including a feminine sense of solidarity, flowers tended to by prisoners in the garden, and the “colourful” sky viewed by inmates who often gaze up into it.
The photographs were taken under the guidance of photographer and former Education Minister Rod Bryans, who said the project was “an organic, fluid process”.
“As you may imagine, it flowed and fluctuated with the demands of prison life. We started with the simple idea of introducing prisoners to storytelling using photography to record the story of H Wing, La Moye Prison. There was understandably restricted access, both in terms of where they could go and the time they were allowed to use the shared cameras,” Mr Bryans explained.
With those inside the prison learning new skills and Mr Bryans himself understanding more about the daily routines of prison life, it was a process of discovery for all involved to develop stories that would chronicle a daily life necessarily providing limited subjects for the camera.
Pictured: Rod Bryans helped the prisoners with their work.
There were, Mr Bryans recalls, a lot of images of fences and wire, sky and flowers, things that might have seemed mere stereotypes until one of the prisoners helped spell out the artistic challenge they faced.
“‘No, I don’t think you see – this is all we have here,’ one of them said to me. ‘It’s where we spend our time – some work in the garden and we spend a lot of time staring at the sky,’ she said.
“Another recently released prisoner said, ‘I was always looking at the sky – it was the only thing of colour and it kept changing. Everything else was just beige.’
“Intuitively snatched moments, reflections of confinement, candid portraits, or just the brunt and tedium of prison life – it’s what they see and how they feel. I grew to admire these women for their humour, stoicism and tenacity."
Prison Governor Susie Richardson said the project was a good example of giving prisoners a voice and recognising their talents.
“This prison, by definition, holds some of the most complex, antisocial, rule-breaking and potentially dangerous individuals on the island, and it is through ‘constraint’ that we keep each individual living and working in the prison safe," she said.
Pictured: Prison Governor Susie Richardson.
She continued: “But with a focus on public protection and the inevitability that all of our prisoners will be released at some time, ‘constraint’ and ‘restraint’ cannot be the only tools used in prison. Not only is that inhumane and indecent, it doesn’t serve the community well if we release people who have only experienced ‘constraint’.
“I hope that the photos in this exhibition demonstrate very clearly that La Moye is most definitely a prison and not a hotel, but that it is a safe, decent, secure and rehabilitative place, which the academic evidence is very clear, is so important in being effective in releasing better neighbours."
Shared Light runs in the Arts Centre’s Berni Gallery until 6 December.
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