Don't Worry About Me

Don't Worry About Me is about the impact of prison on the daily lives of families of incarcerated.

When a person comes into conflict with the law, the world of their loved ones undergoes upheavals impacting several areas of their lives. In the course my research, however, I noted that the vast majority of studies devoted to the relatives of inmates tended to focus upon the family environment as the cause of the offender’s actions. Clearly, the incarceration has consequences on families, sometimes already precarious or weakened, whether financial, emotional and stigmatizing burdens which these families must face.

This photographic study is largely based upon the personal confidences of those who are its subjects. In developing this project, I am visiting men and women who are effectively "locked outside" and surrounded by invisible walls. This is a participatory and intervention project in which those people are an active part in the creation of the images, and have power on how they want to be represented and what is meaningful for them to share.

The project is therefore a combination of photographs, as well as an archive of personal experiences, family snapshots, as well as letters received and personal writings. I gather notes from their intimate notebooks, poems or prayers they have written and, in fragments, crossed portraits are sketched and then drawn. The final photographic work is articulated as a poem which I hope will resonate with partners, parents, siblings, and the children of inmates — all in a view to break down the barriers of prison stigma and open a window of empathy in the hearts of others.