SAN QUENTIN: MAXIMUM SECURITY, 1981–83
December 7 – January 16, 1985
It is the humanity in the inhuman humorless situation that I have tried to confront in these images. From 1981–83, I had the unique opportunity alongside a colleague, Barbara Yaley, to photograph and interview the men at San Quentin State Prison, which at that time was a maximum security facility. For approximately two years, we were provided access to the prison and to the men locked up inside. For a while, in the minimum security block of the prison some prisoners were allowed to decorate their cells with fish tanks and pillows, typewriter bookshelves from home, and bartered items, but when a new warden took over the prison these cells were all stripped bare. I was able to produce a portfolio of life-sized, 48-inch portraits that would tour the country. Many of these photos, as well as other documentary images, were used in a monumental case, which improved the conditions in San Quentin. In a very small way, some of the images I made there contributed to winning that case.
“Thank you for the picture it brings back memories I was thinking of you and not sure if I could say hi now. It was a dangerous place there sometimes but you learned respect for other people. I was very young in there and the day I started doing time time stop for me. my body got older but my mind never got older it was almost like time just stop when I left there my mind was still 18 but I was 27 years old and still thinking like a teenager I think you understand what I mean I hope you and your family are well. I will be 62 years old in march. My brother never got out of prison life he will be about 66 now.”
—Tom Cameron, October 2022