Welcome to Eastern State Penitentiary Exhibition

Welcome to Eastern State Penitentiary”
Exhibition at Parsons School of Design Gallery

December 10–February 6
Arnold Aronson Gallery 66 Fifth Avenue (between 12th and 13th Streets)
Gallery at 2 West 13, 2 West 13th Street
Gallery Hours: Mon–Fri 9–9; Sat–Sun 9–6 Free admission, Open to the public

Opening Reception: Wednesday, December 10, 6pm–9pm
Sponsored by Harlem Brewing Company

Newswise — The tortured past and haunting grandeur of Eastern State Penitentiary comes to life in Albert Vecˇerka’s large, vibrant, color photographs. Vecˇerka is an architectural photographer who is affliated with esto, an agency for architectural photography, and contributes regularly to the New York Times. His show at Parsons consists of many large, full-color photographs mounted to give viewers a visceral sense of the Penitentiary. Visitors experience the isolation of the prison by entering through a recreation of a prison door, and stepping into a life-sized cell.

During the 1800s, when most prisons were unheated dungeons with little food and less ventilation, the Society for Alleviating the Miseries of Prison had a revolutionary idea. It suggested that isolation accompanied by reflection could encourage real change in men, and that penitence was the first step in rehabilitating criminals. Over two decades later, John Haviland’s Eastern State Penitentiary was born, featuring rooms upon rooms for solitary confinement.

Though built with the belief that solitary confinement would bring prisoners penitence and redemption, Eastern State Penitentiary led to the mental and physical demise of many. Considered both a feat of architecture and technology at its opening in 1829, the building also housed a chapel, and each cell featured a round skylight, known as the eye of God. Standing at little more than four feet tall, the doors to cell rooms forced prisoners to bow in subservience as they entered. In the century after it was built, more than 300 prisons around the world were modeled after Eastern State Penitentiary. Before it closed in 1971, it housed such notorious felons as Al Capone and bank robber Willie Sutton.

Just a few years ago, when a few of Vecˇerka’s photographs were exhibited at the University of Pennsylvania’s law school, several students and faculty members protested, believing the subject matter to be too disturbing. Vecˇerka is quick to point out that Eastern State Penitentiary has brought about strong reactions for centuries. In 1831, Alexis de Tocqueville visited and was so enthralled with the prison he brought plans back to France and set up a program creating others based on its design. A decade later, visitor Charles Dickens declared it “cruel and wrong.”

“The lives led inside Eastern State were undoubtedly filled with isolation and madness,” says Vecˇerka. “But the space itself is remarkable, both from an architectural and sociological point of view. Knowing that the architecture was inspired by a genuine will to do good changes the viewer’s relationship with the photograph.”

Still, the idea behind the penitentiary was a far cry from its actuality. Instead of encouraging penitence, isolation actually led inmates to severe physical and psychological trauma, long periods of psychosis, insanity, and even death.

“I was drawn to Eastern State by both the marvelous structure of the building, and the tragedy of its history,” says Vecˇerka, whose keen eye and background in architecture give the photographs a jarring sense of reality. “Here people believed their good intentions would save prisoners from the terror of old prisons, and they constructed something new that was quite possibly more torturous.”

The prison closed in 1971, but is now open for seasonal tours narrated by actor Steve Buscemi, as part of a year-long celebration of the historic site’s 10th season.

To view Vecˇerka’s images of Eastern State Penitentiary, go to http://www.avphotography.com .
For more information on Eastern State Penitentiary, visit http://www.easternstate.org/.

Parsons School of Design, a division of New School University, is one of the largest degree-granting colleges of art and design in the nation. Currently enrolled are about 2,400 undergraduate students, 500 graduate students, and 2,500 non-degree students from all 50 of the United States and from 60 countries. Parsons’ main campuses are located in New York City’s Greenwich Village and Midtown Manhattan. In addition, Parsons has affiliate schools in Paris, France; Kanazawa, Japan; Seoul, South Korea; and at Altos de Chavon in the Dominican Republic. Undergraduate degrees are offered in Architectural Design, Communication Design, Design and Management, Design and Technology, Fashion Design, Fine Arts, Illustration, Interior Design, Photography, Product Design. Graduate degrees are granted in Architecture, Design and Technology, Lighting Design, Painting and Sculpture, Photography, and the History of Decorative Arts. For further information on Parsons, call 212-229-8910 or visit the Web site at http://www.parsons.edu.