What Photography & Incarceration have in Common with an Empty Vase inspires a symposium on Incarceration, Absence Photography & Fiction at Birmingham City University, The Shell, 5 Dec 2018, 2-6pm. Keyonte speakers include Edgar Martins, Dr. Mark Durden, Paul Tebbs, Dr. Ana Kotova & Dr. Marise Tennant.
This project is a multifaceted body of work by Edgar Martins developed from a collaboration with GRAIN Projects and HMP Birmingham (the largest, category B prison in the Midlands). The collaboration was based on engagement with the prison’s inmates and their families as well as a myriad of other local organisations and individuals.
Using the social context of incarceration as a starting point, artist Edgar Martins explores the philosophical concept of absence, and addresses a broader consideration of the status of the photograph when questions of visibility, ethics, aesthetics and documentation intersect.
By giving a voice to inmates and their families and addressing prison as a set of social relations rather than a mere geographical entity, Martins’ work proposes to rethink and counter the sort of imagery normally associated with incarceration.