Hallmark Symposium

Deborah Luster

Hallmark Symposium

October 15, 2015

Deborah Luster is a photographer who had a traumatic past. Her mother was shot when she was younger and since then, has followed in her mother and grandmother’s footsteps by picking up a camera and capturing images that others may find difficult to see. She thought that photographing prisons would bring back the nightmares of her past but instead they proved to be just the thing to heal her wounds and give her the confidence to capture the pain and real story of the inmates. Her “One Big Self” prison story was centered on the inmates of the Louisiana State Penitentiary which is an old plantation, turned into a prison. She thought it a beautiful, yet sad place because there’s always been one form of slavery on the plantation and harvesting the fields since it’s been in existence. The penitentiary is also known as Angola, named after the country where the African slaves came from. This is also significant when considering a majority of the prisoners today are African Americans. Angola Prison also is the largest maximum-security prison in the United States and holds a large number of death row inmates. Deborah Luster knew this history and photographed some meaningful and iconic photos before prison inside the prison, though the prisoners volunteered, posed themselves and she just took the picture. While photographing, she realized that many were excited to get their photograph back because they didn’t know what they looked like and would finally be able to see themselves for the first time in decades. They got to keep 25 wallet-sized photographs, which she said some were send to family members and other were traded around the prison systems. Some of her most meaningful photographs were of inmates and their stories. One man chose to have his picture taken of his hand holding a picture of his son. He sent his son the picture and a few weeks later, his now 18-year-old son came to visit him. Another was of a man with an elaborate man with a tattoo that said “Real Men Eat Pussy”.  After her project at Angola, she was inspired and started photographing the places around New Orleans that displayed pain and suffering of the homicide sites. One was of store doors where a boy was used as a human shield in a robbery and shooting. By photographing the sites and the victims of the family members, she was able to receive more closure from the trauma of her mother’s death. She gave the friends and family of the homicide victims a chance to be heard and show their pain, just as she needed when she was younger