Friday Feb. 22, I spent most of the day photographing in Jinja Main Prison, a max security prison. Jinja is Uganda’s second city, founded by the British in 1907, near the source of the Nile. The prison was designed to house 336 inmates, but presently, there are some 900 staying there, many for twenty years.
The prison authorities, especially the deputy Officer in Charge, Godfred Kumakech, who recognized me from an earlier prison visit in 2010, were very cooperative and gave me access without restrictions.
I cannot share the prison photos with you yet, due to an agreement with GEO Germany and Geo International, who will publish the entire project once it is finished. I can, however, publish a photo from the outside here, plus one from Jinja’s Main Street.
- Jan Banning
May 4th 1954, Almelo
Dutch photographer and artist. Banning was born in the Netherlands from Dutch-East-Indies parents. He studied social and economic history at the Radboud University Nijmegen, and has been working as a photographer since 1981. A central theme of Banning's practice is state power, having produced series about the long-term consequences of war and the world of government bureaucracy.