brennpunkt 2-2012 .indd - Edition dibue

Encerrados, Santiago, Chile, Penitentiary. March 2008, guard beats a convict just entered in prison.
recreate their space is the only way to
defend them.
They hardly try to maintain their habits in
a human boundary condition and overcrowding
status. Violence and power
management inside the jails are direct
consequences of these conditions.
Thus, for instance, in Brazil even if I got
the permission for taking pictures inside
the jails, the jail director had to seek the
approval of a »control« group who ran
the prison.
Some prisoners were used to show defiantly
their knives and who is not armed
becomes a kind of slave.
Dokumentar- und Reportage-Fotografie WELTWEIT
In Santiago, in Chile, the convicts, irritated
by such bad life conditions are
used to fight during their autonomy hour.
The jails rules are the same of that we can
find in life: who has more money and
power, supervises and has authority.
The life in jails is not only power games
and fights. In daily life there is time for
playing football, for talking, for joking
and for women there are moments
in which they dress up and make-up
faces.
The history of this work is not to
denounce the situation in jails but to
discover and tell what joins and what
I went around for 74 male and female
jails in Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina,
Chile, Uruguay, Brazil, Colombia e Venezuela.
I got in contact with prisoners and
guards, with fear and anger, with hope
and diffidence. Some convicts considered
me a distraction, others looked at
me with envy, others again with contempt
because they thought that I was
there only for taking pictures to sell of
their confined life.
Every jail was a way to tell the country
from inside and outside. Even if everything
seems to be just a reflex of violence
the contrast of life and violence belongs
to one line. This corresponds to the history
of South America.
Valerio Bispuri
Valerio Bispuri, 40 years old, was born
in Rome. He has an art and letter graduate.
He is living in Buenos Aires and in
Rome. Professional photoreporter since
2001, he is collaborating with many Italian
and foreign magazines. He made a
lot of reportages in Latin America, Africa
and Middle East. He exhibited in many
places in Italy, Spain and Argentina.
Since many years he is working on different
aspects of life in South America
In 2011 he received a special mention
at the POYi Latin America.
In 2011 he exhibited at Visa pour
l‘Image in Perpignan an exhibition of a
work of ten years on prison sudmaericane:
Encerrados, Travel of South American
jails
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