Mark Strandquist – Windows From Prison Presentation

Though unable to attend the 2014 Ashoka U Exchange at Brown University in person, InSights Grant recipient Mark Strandquist participated in the PhotoWings workshop with this video about his project, “Windows from Prison.” Watch Mark explain his collaborative process and the ideas behind the project.

“If you could have window in your cell, what place from your past would it look out to?” “Windows from Prison” asks this question to hundreds of prisoners who were convicted as juveniles in the Washington, DC area, but sent to adult prisons across the country. The corresponding photo requests were then fulfilled by students at George Mason University and Duke Ellington High School and mailed back to the incarcerated participants. The project then exhibits both the letters and photographs around a scale model of a prison cell on the GMU Campus. The cell houses collaborative work between researchers and artists dealing with incarceration. It also becomes center stage to a week of events and discussions examining the effects of incarceration on society, as well as on individuals.

“Windows from Prison” utilizes photography as a way to bridge this distance while creating space and humanistic entry points for students, faculty, NGO’s, family members of incarcerated individuals, former prisoners, and policy makers to engage with the sources, impacts, and alternatives to mass incarceration.