Photofusion is pleased to present an exhibition
by the award-winning Magnum photographer Carl De Keyzer, who
has been documenting Siberia’s prison camps over the
past two years.
To many Westerners, Siberia remains geographically and culturally
distant,
a place notorious for the horror of Stalin’s prison camps. Officially
disbanded
in 1960, the legacy of the Gulag persists and today the camps still house
a free labour force of around a million prisoners.
De Keyzer photographed some 35 camps, revealing a harsh
way of life totally isolated from the rest of the world. Shaven-headed,
gaunt young men crowd together to eat fish and hewn blocks
of bread; a prisoner takes an icy outdoor shower in -40c
conditions; another recovers from TB in a bleak ward where
orange check fabric serves for both blankets and pyjamas.
Alongside these images, more surprising revelations are made
- a gang of brawny tattooed inmates labour under a bright
blue sky; a smiling prisoner holds up his
new-born baby, and female convicts smooch at the Saturday night disco.
De Keyzer ‘s images, often in startling colour, jolt
us with their immediacy and offer a rare insight into the
lives of those inhabiting these isolated institutions.
Born in 1958 in Ghent, Belgium, Carl De Keyzer has been
an invited member
of Magnum photo agency since 1994. His work has been exhibited in numerous
solo shows worldwide, including Moscow House of Photography, California
Museum of Photography and Bombay Center for Photography. His awards include
The Hasselblad Award (Belgium, 1986), The Eugene Smith Award (USA, 1990)
and The Kodak Book Award (Germany, 1996). |
