There is no country in the world with such a high incarceration rate as the United States. Many citizens are unjustly imprisoned every day, and in extreme cases, for life. The Dutch photographer Jan Banning made the project Law & Order about prisons in four different countries, including the United States. Recently, his new book The Verdict: The Christina Boyer Case was published, in which he examines a particular case of extreme injustice.

‍
Documentary photographer Jan Banning is known for his other projects like Bureaucratics and Comfort Women. His recent projects, Law & Order and The Verdict, continue his lifelong themes concerning the injustice of social and political systems. "In the Western society, you have the 'trias politica', three separate political powers: the legislative, the executive and the judiciary. For Bureaucratics, showing civil servants behind their desks, I photographed the executive power. Afterwards, I wondered how I could photograph the judiciary power. As a legacy of my history studies, I am particularly interested in social systems. In Down and Out in the South, I discovered that some homeless people were psychiatric patients who ended up in prison when they actually needed treatment. They were the indirect victims of a bad functioning social system."

‍

Public debate

The book Law & Order contains both photographs and texts. For Jan Banning, photography is not enough to make a convincing statement about this complex topic. So, the photographs are published along with academic texts. "I want my project to become part of the public debate. It is rooted in the triangle of art, science and media. The knowledge comes from the academic world, the form from art, and you need the media to bring the subject into the public domain. As an autonomous and activist artist, I do not limit myself to photography. I always add an intellectual foundation to my work."
‍

‍

With his project Law & Order, Banning wants to evoke the public to ask themselves questions about the purpose of imprisonment. "I am not trying to dictate how countries should handle crime. My book offers no solutions, but I ask questions about the current system and its effectiveness. In the US, punishment is excessive, even for minor offences. Yet, the greater the income inequality in a country, the higher the crime rate. Prison sentences do not help against that."

The prison system pretends to use the idea of isolation, retribution, and punishment as correction. "How can you correct someone by locking him up for ten or more years? Would you think someone will come out of the prison as a better person?"

According to artist Jan Banning, photography should evoke the viewer to ask himself questions. "The photos have to confuse. If you photograph a poor child to show poverty, you are using a cliché. You add nothing new for the viewer. Photography is an expressive medium. I don't want to look for the familiar emotion but want to evoke thought in the viewer's brain."

Photography that seeks to be right is a form of propaganda.

Banning does not make photographs to show the viewer the so-called truth. "Photography that seeks to be right is a form of propaganda. That is why I do not want to make unambiguous pictures or impose a conclusion. I say with my pictures: look and feel what you see and then let your mind work." It is essential for Banning that photography is able to bring change to society. "Through the emotional impact of the photographs, the audience is invited to delve into the context and background of the images, which in the end can change their opinion."
‍

Christina Boyer

During his Law & Order project, Jan Banning made a series of portraits in Pulaski women's prison in Georgia in the southern United States. "I was given permission to set up a studio in the prison for three days. I wanted to photograph the women without judgement, based on my opinion that anyone could end up in prison due to circumstances."

The portraits formed a starting point for further research. "I wanted to do an investigation into the role of private data on the Internet because I had noticed in my project Down & Out in the South that many people had difficulty reintegrating and therefore sometimes became homeless as a result of the information on the Internet about them."

Searching for information about the incarcerated women he portrayed, Banning came across the harrowing story of Christina Boyer, who was sentenced to life plus twenty years for murdering her three-year-old daughter, even though there were clear indications of her innocence. "I had sent my portraits to all the women in prison, after which I contacted Christina by email. I noticed she was incredibly open and powerful."

‍

The photographer delved into this case which turned out to be a glaring and baffling example of the injustice of the American prison system, resulting in his latest book, The Verdict: The Christina Boyer Case. "I felt the need to do something for the subjects I have photographed. Could I do something concrete and meaningful? Because I strongly suspected her innocence, I started to thoroughly investigate the events that led to Christina's conviction."

Could I do something concrete and meaningful?

Banning's report about his extensive investigation has been published in the book. He used sources from the local newspaper, the court reports and the many emails Christina sent to him. The research yielded the sorrowful story of Christina, who experienced a continuous range of misfortunes right after her birth that started with her adoption. "Everything points to Christina's innocence. That was also the conclusion reached by experts. Since the only legal option is a parole, a form of early release, publicity seems to be the best means of exerting pressure on this."
‍

Visual representation

Besides the written report, Banning was looking for a visual interpretation, but he obviously could not photograph the past facts. Because film noir also treats themes like crime and good and bad, Banning applied the film noir style by using a directional flashlight. In one photograph, titled Imagined Sparta 3 Cent, 09-04-2019, you see a young girl in a pink dress lying on a bed. The girl remains anonymous because, halfway through a door, you can get only a glimpse of her legs and the skirt. The staged image suggests Amber's story without revealing what is happening, inviting the viewer to imagine what might have happened. Banning used the same film noir approach for other pictures of this section, like the picture of Ambers grave. "I illuminated the grave with a spotlight to create a stronger visual impact."

‍

‍

‍

‍Rural Georgia
For another section of photographs made in the rural areas of Georgia, the photographer asked Christina to write her personal associations with the images. Banning is convinced that interpreting a picture depends on the frame of reference of the spectator. "Not only beauty but also meaning is in the eye of the beholder."

The images show old shops, a worn-out trailer, abandoned houses, stop signs at junctions, bare walls and many windows with bars in front. "The associations of Christina gave her a voice in my project, alongside those from her diaries, from which I published some selected pages." Christina's writings show a lively and creative mind, but the texts also reveal she is shackled in her mind. She immediately detects any, even if distant, bars in many photographs. "Her writings have a lot of meaning. Her comments on my photos of Georgia must be understood from the context of her past."

Public opinion can be a strong power.

The themes Jan Banning presented in his former documentary projects seem to merge in The Verdict: The Christina Boyer Case. This project is the most personal crusade against social and political injustice. "Christina's case motivated me to fight as an artivist the injustice that malfunctioning systems can produce. Of course, I hope that my project will lead to her release. It is a big challenge. Public opinion can be a strong power."

‍

‍

Association by Christina Boyer

What this photo invoked was a sense of dreariness. The fence is the first thing I noticed, of course. I wonder if it is somehow trying desperately (like the South tries) to hold on to a simpler, more innocent time. And hold the rest of the world at bay. There’s such a contrast between the times depicted in the picture of Gone with the Wind and real life. The South likes to think of itself as laid back, genteel, hospitable. But of course I know a much different Georgia: one that’s so cold, merciless, and unforgiving, and holding on to a penal colony mentality. The NY Strip 499 jumps out at me because I’d love a steak right now. So many women around here say they dream of sex and the like… I dream of eating a dinner of steak, baked potato, broccoli with cheese, a huge salad. Funny how even my dreams differ from a lot of people in here. I imagine we all dream of freedom. But of different… very different things in that freedom.

‍

Association by Christina Boyer

The picture with the American flag had me feeling mad and abandoned. This may sound crazy but I once was a VERY patriotic woman. I thought this was the best country in the world. It NEVER occurred to me that innocent people came to prison. That people lost their lives while still breathing in this ‘free country’. I never believed that what’s happened to me could be possible in this country. That flag once symbolized the land of the free. Now, when I see that flag, all I feel is disappointment bordering on disgust. It represents a country that doesn’t care. One thing I dearly abhor is hypocrisy and that’s what I think of and feel when I see the American flag because all that it claimed it stood for and all I believed that it stood for… was a lie. Where is justice? Where is liberty? Where is freedom? My country left me to die in a prison for a crime I never committed. My country has shown me that unless I am famous or have millions of dollars, no justice can be found for me. When I saw this picture with that piece of paper blowing down an empty street I thought: That’s just like me, abandoned by my own country. My own country let them take my life. Left me breathing in this coffin of prison life. Locked me away like a monster. And for what.

‍

Jan Banning is a Dutch independent artist/photographer. He was born in Almelo, the Netherlands, on May 4, 1954, to Dutch East Indies parents and studied social and economic history at the Radboud University in Nijmegen. Both facts have had a strong influence on his photographic work. Museums have purchased Banning's artworks, such as the High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA; the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX; and the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.

The Verdict project will be exhibited from February 27 to June 17 2022, in Nederlands Fotomuseum.

www.janbanning.com

‍