Incarcerated

This is what the future used to look like. Dozens of prisons were built in the UK between 1842 and 1877; over 30 of them remain in use today. For over 20 years Andy Aitchison, the UK’s foremost prison photographer, has photographed behind the walls. Incarcerated is his unique exploration of how this Victorian prison infrastructure has persisted, and what these old buildings mean for the people who live and work inside.

“Honest but never dreary, these images are rich with a playful storytelling that takes us beyond prison cliches, to places that are delicate, tragic and beautiful. If more people looked at prisons and the people in them the same way that Andy Aitchison did, then they would surely become more humane places.”

The images in Incarcerated are part of ongoing research on the long afterlives of Britain’s Victorian prison estate by geographers, criminologists, and historians. Together they explore how the fabric and function of prisons built in the nineteenth century have changed over time, the tensions between architectural obsolescence and persistence, and what it has felt like to live and work in Victorian prisons then and now. Presented in conversation with essays written by members of the project team, Andy’s photographs form a unique portrait of Britain’s still-functioning Victorian prisons, and those who live and work in them.