Wallace Istre, Angola, Louisiana
March 19, 1999
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
gelatin silver print on aluminum
Dimensions
image/plate: 12.7 × 10.1 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
2014.177.121
Art Historical Context
Deborah Luster's *Wallace Istre,, Louisiana* (1999) captures a poignant portrait from within the confines of Louisiana's Angola State Penitentiary, one of America's largest and most infamous maximum-security prisons. Shot on March 19, 1999, this intimate gelatin silver print depicts Wallace Istre, evoking the stark formality of mugshot photography while inviting viewers to confront the human stories behind incarceration. Luster, known for her empathetic documentary work on prison life, uses this image to humanize her subjects amid Angola's harsh historical backdrop of forced labor and racial i...
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 ...