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Debi Cornwall
"Gitmo at Home, Gitmo at Play"

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Smoke Break, Camp America, 2014/2015, Digital C-print

Artist Statement
Thirteen years after the first prisoners arrived at the U.S. Naval Base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba (“Gitmo”), 122 men remain held there, almost half cleared for release years ago. Over three visits in the last year, I explored America’s offshore exercise of power in the post-9/11 era. "Gitmo at Home, Gitmo at Play" looks at the grim absurdity of daily life through the residential and leisure spaces of prisoners and military personnel. For some, Gitmo is a tropical paradise, the “best-kept secret in the military.” The performance of American normalcy is pervasive here, from McDonald’s to minigolf. Prisoners’ and guards’ experiences can never be equated. Yet despite the show of fun, they have something in common: life is defined by routine, order, and tedium. Everyone, it seems, is counting the days until they can go home. Of course, the detainees do not know if this day will ever come.

Artist Bio
Debi Cornwall works at the intersection of documentary and fine art photography. After studying at RISD and attending Harvard Law School, Debi practiced for more than a decade as a civil rights attorney representing the wrongly convicted. Her photographs examine the human experience of systemic injustice, trauma and transition; look to transcend simple labels of "perps" and "victims;" and explore the ways in which spaces reflect conflict and its aftermath. “Gitmo at Home, Gitmo at Play” is Debi’s first project since returning to visual expression in 2014. The series is available in limited edition prints.