Ernest Reynolds, Angola, Louisiana
1999
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
gelatin silver print on aluminum
Dimensions
image/plate: 12.7 × 10.2 cm (5 × 4 in.)
Classification
Photograph
Department
CPH
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of Julia J. Norrell, in Honor of Claude Simard and the 25th Anniversary of Photography at the National Gallery of Art
Accession Number
2014.177.133
Art Historical Context
Deborah Luster's *Ernest Reynolds, Angola, Louisiana* (1999) is a poignant gelatin silver print mounted on aluminum, capturing an intimate portrait measuring just 5 × 4 inches. This small-scale photograph invites close contemplation, its modest dimensions echoing the personal stories it preserves. Luster, a contemporary American photographer, is renowned for her empathetic documentation of incarceration, particularly through projects like *One Big Self: Prisoners of Louisiana*, where she collaborated with inmates at Louisiana State Penitentiary—commonly known as Angola—to create dignified port...
About the Artist
Deborah Luster
Deborah Luster, born in 1951 in Bend, Oregon, grew up in Northwest Arkansas and later made her home in New Orleans, Louisiana, with additional time spent in Galway, Ireland. Her path to photography was profoundly shaped by personal tragedy: the 1988 murder of her mother, which prompted her to take up the medium as a means of processing grief and exploring violence's aftermath. Luster attended the ...