“When you are suspended by a rope you can recover, but every time I see a rope I remember. If the light goes out unexpectedly, I am back in my cell.”

— Binyam Mohamed, Prisoner #1458

Photographer Edmund Clark has made a series of photographs that examine various aspects of the prison camps at Guantanamo Bay. He explores the facilities for the prisoners, and for the Americans who live there at the naval base. Then he visits and photographs at the homes of some of the detainees who have been freed. Clark’s text illuminates his ideas about the lives of the people involved — detainees, their families, American guards and their families, and life after prison and torture.

This is a book-length project, and we're very happy to present an excerpt here in Lens Culture. The photos that you see here are edited and sequenced in a way that is different from the presentation Clark intends for the book.

Clark originally wanted to eliminate the captions to the photos, reducing them merely to one of three consistent captions: base, camp, home. I argued that the information in many of the captions helped me understand exactly what I was looking at, and provided context that seemed essential. After some back-and-forth emails, we agreed to keep the captions here.

I encourage you to look at these photos and text, and to discover more from this project on his website.

In addition to sharing this important work with you, we’re interested to know what you think about the necessity of captions with photographs like this. Please add your comments to this blog!