The aesthetic, the embodied, the intangible: possibilities and limits of visual carceral research

• In Event: Seeing Punishment: Understanding Incarceration and Structural Violence Through Visual Data

Abstract

This paper, presented as a photo essay, traces my work as a visual carceral anthropologist in/around prisons since 2015. I look back at three ethnographic projects in three different carceral contexts: one in-depth ethnographic project on prison labor using photography-as-storytelling; one visual ethnography inside a men’s prison using a photo elicitation methodology; and a participatory photovoice project with women who have incarcerated loved ones. Although each project was distinct methodologically and my specific research questions and theoretical frameworks differed, across all projects I was interested in understanding how incarceration/carceralism impacts one’s gendered identity. Here I analyze what role photography played in each project; how I used it is a both a tool and an ethos. I will consider what I have thus learned about the ethical challenges, the humanistic potential, and the collaborative knowledge-building capacity of visual research in carceral settings, and what I hope to learn from fellow panelists and attendees for the future.

Author

• Lindsey Raisa Feldman, University of Memphis