‘Law & Order: The World of Criminal Justice’

“If we can’t come up with anything better than imprisonment, then it is good to be aware of human evolution. A portion of the prison population certainly consists of pathological criminals. But what about all the others?” — Jan Banning

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In 2008, Dutch photographer Jan Banning gained worldwide recognition with the release of his book "Bureaucratics" (Nazraeli Press), which garnered rave reviews and sold out quickly. Edited by Martin Parr, it contains 50 environmental portraits of civil servants in eight countries: Bolivia, China, France, India, Liberia, Russia, the United States and Yemen.

Banning’s newest book, "Law & Order: The World of Criminal Justice," is a natural extension of "Bureaucratics." The book is a rare and innovative examination of criminal justice, combining the world of photographic art with that of legal science. Banning’s photographs reveal the daily realities of the police, the courts, the prisoners and the often hidden prison conditions in four countries: Colombia, France, Uganda and the United States.

With Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump proclaiming himself the "law and order" candidate, and the Black Lives Matter movement urging Trump and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and the general public to acknowledge the role structural racism plays in the U.S. justice system, the topic of "law and order" could not be more relevant.

Due to layers of bureaucracy, it took Banning up to five years to gain access to the prisons depicted in this compelling book. At each location, it was his goal to expose the differences and commonalities in the treatment of the prisoners, but without passing personal judgment and avoiding stereotypical prison images.

In an interview with Photo District News, he said, "I was looking for paradoxes and contradictions within the series … to get people to think, and to look for answers." His photographs overthrow many assumptions. For example, they reveal the relatively warm environments of prisons in Uganda, where the prisoners are treated humanely by wardens and guards, in contrast to the more sterile, impersonal settings of prisons in the United States.

The book includes Banning’s reflections on criminal punishment and Michiel Scholtes’ moving firsthand narrative of being tried and imprisoned in France. Legal specialists from the Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Criminal Law (MPI) in Freiburg, Germany, provide brief introductions to the four countries’ justice systems, plus infographics on crime and criminal justice in them and a selection of other countries. Ulrich Sieber, director of the MPI, contributes a foreword.

This multifaceted collection of photos, texts and statistics provides a fresh perspective on criminal policy that undermines political platitudes and popular clichés. "Law & Order" raises many pressing questions, including: How should humans deal with criminals? What is the relationship between punishment and crime? Is confinement, besides being an instrument of punishment, also effective as a means of correction?

Jan Banning is a Dutch autonomous artist-photographer, based in Utrecht, the Netherlands. He was born in Almelo (Netherlands) on May 4, 1954, from Dutch East Indies parents, and he studied social and economic history at the Radbout University of Nijmegen. Banning’s artwork has been acquired by museums such as the High Museum of Art, Atlanta; the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; and the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. His photo series have been published in print media including Days Japan, GEO (France, Germany and International), l’Espresso, Newsweek (U.S. and Japan), One World, Sunday Times Magazine, The New Yorker, The Guardian Weekend, National Geographic, Time, Vrij Nederland, among many other outlets. Banning has been the subject of a television documentary by Frank van Osch entitled A Touch of Cruelty. (Andrea Smith)

U.S. book launch at Bronx Documentary Center, Sept. 20, 2016. Book available at Bookshop.

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