Despite the staggering number of people in the U.S. prison system (more than 2 million in 2025), the lives of incarcerated people are rarely glimpsed. Life behind bars remains a mystery for those not directly touched by the system.
Inside Out: Dignity and the Art of Seeing contains photographs, videos, and other artifacts from the Arts in Prison program done with men at the shuttered Lorton Reformatory, and a similar program at the DC Jail. The exhibit at the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities’ Eye Street Gallery gives an in-depth look at a space and people that are routinely overlooked.
The Arts in Prison program was started by Karen Ruckman, who happened to be working on a freelance photography assignment at the prison in Fairfax County in the 1980s, where the head of volunteer services suggested she teach a photography class. Soon after, she applied for a grant from the DC Commission on Arts and Humanities that allowed her to fund the class and to officially develop the Arts in Prison program under the commission. (The prison closed in 2001.)
Bernard Seaborn, one of the participants in the class, recalls the rigor of learning photography basics before being able to branch out. “We had to pass the class. Initially it was technical,” he tells City Paper. “It wasn’t expressive yet. Once we got the knack of the assignments, now we could begin to play with the art a little bit, and everybody began to express themselves.”…