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CURRENT
PROJECT
Louisiana
State Penitentiary at Angola
Paul
Taggart, From the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola
series, courtesy and copyright the artist.
The
Louisiana State Penitentiary (LSP) at Angola, our nation's largest
state penitentiary, is located in West Felicia Parish, approximately
fifty-nine miles northwest of Baton Rouge. Surrounded on three
sides by the Mississippi River with the Tunica Hills forming its
fourth border, Angola's 18,000 acres creates a highly isolated
prison farm. LSP currently houses and employs approximately 1,500
correctional officers to supervise and secure the over 5,000 inmates
that are incarcerated there. The penitentiary itself is composed
of multiple "mini-prisons," the Main Prison Complex (housing approximately
2,500 inmates) as well as five out camps collectively housing
approximately 2,600 inmates. Each "mini-prison" is fully staffed,
including separate wardens, security staffs, classification staffs,
as well as medical personnel. Each area is also fully equipped
with a canteen, kitchen, laundry facility, and clothing room.
I began photographing a range of US correctional facilities in
early 2001; by the spring of 2002, I traveled down to Angola to
photograph the prison rodeo for a weekend. After a glimpse into
the LSP culture I knew I had to make more images of this facility
that was like none other that I had witnessed. Through researching
the facility and speaking with the public relations department
about the project, it became clear that this prison's story needed
to be photographed in a very different aesthetic than my previous
prison work. I decided to photograph the prison in color using
strobes and to focus on the people working/living at the facility
rather than just the inmates. The entire project was self-funded
and was shot digitally to help save on costs.
-
Paul Taggart
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CURRENT
PROJECT
Malaria
in Africa
Paul
Taggart, From the Malaria in Africa series, courtesy and
copyright the artist.
The malaria project
is one of many stories produced with the support of the CARE foundation
in Tanzania. As a team, Pennsylvania based photojournalist Sarah
Bones and myself traveled throughout the country photographing
CARE projects as well personal stories including the arrival of
the Congolese refugees arriving in the Lugufu refugee camps after
fleeing the Democratic Republic of the Congo Civil War. Often
shadowed by stories on HIV/AIDS, malaria is commonly disregarded
as a problem since it is of little importance or danger to most
US citizens. I didn't begin to realize the grasp to which this
disease has on the continent until the locals, who assumed I had
the parasite, sent me to a hospital in the Kigoma region. Like
most stories, as a photographer the unexpected ones are the images
that resonate and morph into larger projects: the Malaria project
is the beginning of a larger essay dealing with this often-overlooked
mosquito-born epidemic.
Each year, well over 300 million people are infected with malaria
and more than 1 million people die of the disease. 90% of these
deaths are in Africa where the malaria burden is currently on
the rise for the first time in 20 years. This is due in part to
the rapid spread of strains of the disease that are resistant
to drugs such as chloroquine, the cheapest standard drug. Other,
more effective drugs are available, but at the cost of $1-3 per
patient, they are out of the reach of most Africans. Africa loses
$12 billion worth of GDP annually because of malaria. Currently,
$200 million are spent annually on global malaria control, with
the estimated needed funding standing at $1.5-$2.5 billion each
year. While malaria is a preventable disease, even the most basic
preventative measures, such as insecticide-treated bed nets, are
too expensive for most Africans to purchase.
To learn more about CARE, one of the world's largest private international
humanitarian organizations, visit http://www.careusa.org/
- Paul Taggart
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