the portuguese prison photo project, volume 1

the portuguese prison photo project provides an overview of Portugal's contemporary and historical prisons. Its aim is to document places of deprivation of liberty and to organize exhibitions. These should make visitors aware of life in prison and enable them to reflect on the meaning of the prison sanction.

Two photographers, the Portuguese Luis ­Barbosa and the Swiss Peter Schulthess were given permission to shoot pictures in Portuguese prisons. These were presented in four exhibitions.

The first exhibition was organized in Porto in 2017 at the Centro Português de Fotografia and was very well received. In 2018, Luís Barbosa was awarded the prize of the Sociedade Portuguesa de Autores for best photographic work in 2017. Another two exhibitions were held in Lisbon, one in 2019 at the Museu do Aljube Resistência e Liberdade, and one in 2021/2022 at the Arquivo Nacional Torre do Tombo. Finally, an exhibition was presented at the Museu de Portimão in the Algarve in 2024, with new pictures, plus a new part of historical photographs on prisons used for political detention between 1926 and 1974.

The publication on the portuguese prison photo project is divided into three volumes. This volume 1 contains 88 photographs in black and white by Luis Barbosa. They were made between 2016 and 2023. The volume 2 presents the photographs made by Peter Schulthess. The volume 3 provides background information on all aspects of the project. Additionally, it contains a description of the photos featured in the first two volumes.