Bruce Jackson: Cummins Wide Photographs From the Arkansas State Prison May 8, 2009

Bruce Jackson, Buffalo-based photographer, filmmaker, and folklorist, possesses a unique talent to draw us into his photographs and break down the barrier between the viewer and the image. Fifty-three extraordinary Widelux images of Cummins Prison Farm, taken more than twenty-five years ago, are the focus of this exhibition, which is part of a much larger group of works that includes books, film, sound recordings, journal articles, and other photographic exhibitions that center on prison culture in the United States. Cummins, infamously known in the early 1970s as "the worst prison in the United States," opened in 1902 and is located in the southeastern portion of Arkansas.