Making Photos Inside to Bring the Stories Out
A photographer spent three years documenting Belgium’s prisons. Now, he seeks your help in publishing a book of the images.
Sébastien van Malleghem is fascinated by the means through which the state asserts control over citizens. He documented the police in his home country of Belgium for four years. After that he turned his attention to the long arm of the law operating behind closed doors. Van Malleghem went inside a dozen prisons over a period of three years. Now nearing the end of the project, he is crowdfunding monies to print a book.
His photography displays an honorable, even perverse, devotion to the topic and to prisoners themselves. We wanted to find out why he does it and why anyone would want to throw some cash in the pot.
Scroll down for the Q&A
Vantage: Why should anyone care about prisons? Least of all Belgian prisons?
SVM: Belgium is the center of Europe. International politicians meet here constantly. As a photographer and photojournalist I’m trying to draw attention to what’s happening just under their noses. Belgium is my country and I want to talk about it. What’s the reality of the justice system HERE?
Vantage: You’ve distributed the work widely already and been recognized with awards. Why make a book?
SVM: The work has been well distributed, it’s true, but press outlets only show a maximum of 25 pictures with text and captions. I’ve been shooting for three years and work is bigger than 25 photographs. The book will be 210 pages of testimonies and interviews, with at least 130 photos.
SVM: The book is, for me, the closure of the story. Photographs must end on paper. That’s how the medium exists — in print. On paper, with full context, you can touch the pictures, understand the whole story. Things fade away on the Internet. Clicked, Like, then something else. Good photos in a book stick to your head. The largest part of my photo story will be exclusive to the book.
Vantage: You say “I looked straight ahead.” Were you scared? Hesitant?
SVM: When I entered prison I thought to myself, “Do not make drama from what you see.”
But, then, besides what you see, there is what you hear — the sound of the prison. There is fence every 10 meters. The guards must push a button to open every fences. Doors and fences slam and buzz. Then I listened guards and prisoners. If you listen and look during three years, you hear and see though things. There is the temperature — cold, very cold. There is a constant pressure.
I was never scared. I was, instead, very alert to the details, just filling my mind and my eyes with these places. In the end you just start to feel nervous because of all you’ve seen and heard. I think my pictures reveal those feelings.
Vantage: You went to twelve prisons? Wasn’t one enough?
SVM: One prison was definitely not enough. There are different types of prisons, for different types of detainee. I wanted to see prisons in Wallonia (the French region of Belgium) then in Brussels (the capital) and then in Flanders (Flemish part). I wanted a full picture of the Belgian detention system. I visited prisons for women, and prisons for long term and short term custody, and prisons for the mentally disabled.
“They are like us. They just fucked something up. Prisoners behave like any of us would in a closed, monitored area.”
Verviers prison was close to be being destroyed. I was locked-up in a brand new prison in Beveren as a “guinea pig” with other press-persons. I saw the “pilot” prison of Ghent where they “try” things — movie theaters, new education programs, open prisons — before implementing in other institutions. You reach the number of twelve quiet easily.
Vantage: What are prisoners like?
SVM: They are like us. They just fucked something up. I photographed what I saw. Prisoners behave like any of us would in a closed, monitored area. We all can feeling guilty, angry, stressed, scared, and would like to run away, don’t we? Multiply those feelings by the degree of the offense and you can start to understand. I want to push audiences to just think about it.
Vantage: Do you think your photos bring us closer to prisoners and closer to understanding them? Maybe your images push us further apart? Is that a concern for you?
SVM: I’m going to the essential with my pictures. This is why it is called PRISONS. Being close to the people, listening them, understanding the situation and get the sincerity of a look, photograph situations, look ahead, pushing myself to go again and again, and face what I photographed.
“Attitudes inside and outside prisons need to grow up.”
Vantage: Who are you biggest influences? Any great images of prisons from the past that have shaped this project?
SVM: I try to not have any big references for my personal stories. Obviously I know amazing photography of prisons, cops and justice systems, but for PRISONS I just read some books. I wanted to keep my mind largely free of distractions before going inside. Just as a white sheet of paper.
Vantage: Why do the guards and the prisoners have the same tired faces?
SVM: Firstly, the light inside. Insane. Almost tungsten light everywhere.
Secondly, most of the prison has grey or white walls, no curves and no place to rest your mind or your eyes. You can’t find any horizon. You have a depth of field of 10 meters, maybe. So, your eyes are locked.
During an interview I did with the guards, I discovered that none of them had chosen to do the job. They do it because it is secure employment (it’s hard to fire civil servants) and a secure monthly wage.
Imagine being locked in the same place — as a staff member or a prisoner — for months or years without seeing your surroundings properly? Imagine being a prisoner in a cell, stuck with a TV and a cellmate, in 8 square meters, with no space between your bed, the other bed and the toilet? Prison is a mix of pressure, tension, control, lies, boredom and administration.
Vantage: You said in a past interview that prisons stunt people socially and this is perhaps the biggest damage they can do?
SVM: Cutting people off from society is really dangerous. Isolation is not a solution. You can put walls, as much you want it will not make calm them, just increase their anger. It depends also how you treat the people you put in prison.
Vantage: How can prisons function better?
SVM: I met a prison director who had a model of a prison situated in the middle of a city, with windows and trees everywhere. Why not?
The government should be more selective with who they hire people to work in prisons. Offer more psychological assistance and not just that linked with a prisoners case — offer personal and private psychological counseling. I’m aware that some prisoners are a real danger to themselves or society and might never fit into a system, but most can be helped. Help them find jobs and a decent place to live. Specialist educators could prepare prisoners for outside life.
Ultimately, attitudes inside and outside prisons need to grow up. I hear all the time basic opinions such as “that’s all that’s good for them.” Let’s try to understand crime, and accept it root causes. It will be easier to reduce.
Vantage: You’re crowd funding the book. That’s why we’re doing this interview. Loads of photographers do crowdfunding campaigns. Any dos or don’ts you’ve learnt so far?
Sébastien Van Malleghem (SVM): No do or don’ts. I just do it. I want to achieve this work and to show the full story. I believe people will be interested in this story. It’s an incredible experience to show up alone, before the world, and ask, “Can we do it all together?” That’s incredibly exciting. If the funding is successful, we’ll be able to make a great book.
Support Van Malleghem’s crowdfunding campaign here.
