Richard
Burton

The Architecture of Incarceration 

Amnesty Internationals photographic archive exists as one of the worlds largest collections of human rights focused photographic material. It contains the accumulated evidential and campaigning visual materials of the organisations long history, and since the advent of digital photography has remained largely untouched.

The layers of multiple prints, the now latent accumulation of copies which would have been distributed to the organisations country based sections for reproduction in their research and campaigning outputs, speak of a time when the networks of image distribution and exchange were physical. Images sourced from families of affected individuals, from local activists, community groups and local NGO’s, sit alongside prints gathered from news organisations, freelance photographers or other relevant INGO’s as well as a wealth of material gathered by researchers conducting fieldwork to support an area of concern.

This extract is centred on the documentation of prison facilities, images taken or acquired by the organisation to support its work on arbitrary detention and conditions which contravene international law. It is part of a broader body of work aimed at reactivating the archive from an objective visual standpoint. The images which comprise this inconclusive study are presented as found, with prints layered in their folders, embodying a literal multiplicity of reproduction. They offer an historical perspective on photographic modes of evidence gathering and the visual resources stored to support the organisations advocacy outputs. The archive is referenced here as a literal site, an edifice which holds a dormant echo of the most significant human rights contraventions of the past 70 years.