Windows Slave Jail, Port of Spain, Trinidad, Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, WI, 2009
Artist
William Earle Williams
(American, born 1950)
MediumGelatin silver print
DimensionsSheet: 10 x 8 in (25.4 x 20.3 cm)
Credit LinePicker Art Gallery. Purchase of the Gary M. Hoffer '74 Memorial Photography Collection Fund
Object number2022.3.2
DescriptionIn 1800 the population of Port of Spain included more than four thousand enslaved men, women, and children. This jail held slaves before they were distributed to local plantations, and for many it would have been their first experience in the Americas. It was also used for punishment, and historic accounts describe victims chained flat to the floor in airless, windowless cells. Williams’ framing of the jail’s windows, shutters flung open and seen from an angle that makes them seem to reach out and draw in light, results in a picture that does more than commemorate a place of suffering and a crime against humanity. It is a powerful statement on the interconnectedness of freedom and redemption, two themes the artist examines throughout this body of work. This structure was demolished not long after Williams photographed it.
ClassificationsPhotographs
Collections
Exhibitions
Core / Collections
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