In Prison Air: The Cells of Holmesburg Prison

In Prison Air: The Cells of Holmesburg Prison

In 1999, photographer Thomas Roma found himself within the walls of Philadelphiaâ€™s Holmesburg Prison, one of the most notorious prisons in the United States, doing a special photographic project for Steve Buscemiâ€™s Animal Factory. During downtime Roma wandered through this nineteenth-century fortress, walking in and out of many of its seven hundred or so cells. After Holmesburgâ€™s inception in 1896â€”on the occasion of which one Philadelphia reporter warned, â€œAbandon all hope all ye who enter hereâ€â€”it quickly became the prison for Philadelphiaâ€™s worst criminals, eventually packing up to five prisoners into six by eight foot cells designed for single-occupancy. After leaving the site, Roma found his mind often inhabiting the space of the prison with its halls of flaking paint and graffiti-covered cells. Overwhelmed by the evidence of the lives spent inside those small rooms, Roma returned to photograph on his own, creating the images now collected for In Prison Air: The Cells of Holmesburg Prison.

Holmesburg, closed in 1997, is perhaps most well known for a series of scientific experiments carried out on its prisoners over a period of twenty-five years. Sponsored by the U.S. Army, the CIA, the University of Pennsylvania, The Dow Chemical Company, and Johnson & Johnson, the experiments tested the effects of substances ranging from deodorants and hair dyes to LSD and BZ, a compound ten times as strong as LSD, to radioactive isotopes and chemical warfare agents. These tests also included a special climate chamber designed for the study of skin diseases encountered during World War II. Dr. Albert Kligman, the architect of the human testing program at Holmesburg, saw the prison as â€œacres of skin.â€¦like a farmer seeing a fertile field for the first time.â€ Now, Kligmanâ€™s tests are considered by many to be one of the most explicit violations of the Nuremberg Code, as undereducated and illiterate prisoners almost certainly did not realize the consequences of their consent. The cells are now empty of the men that endured their squalor, but their presence remains through the detritus and graffiti accumulated over the prisonâ€™s century-long history, etched indelibly into Romaâ€™s master lens.
Country USA
Manufacturer powerHouse Books
Binding Hardcover
ReleaseDate 2005-12-01
EANs 9781576872574

Country	USA
Manufacturer	powerHouse Books
Binding	Hardcover
ReleaseDate	2005-12-01
EANs	9781576872574

In Prison Air: The Cells of Holmesburg Prison

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