Living Space by Anna Norton

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It has been said that if you photographed someone every single day from the moment of conception to the moment of death, you would still not acquire an accurate portrait. This statement is true of architecture as well. Millions of photographs of Eastern State Penitentiary could never fully recreate the experience of living, working, or simply visiting in this space. Yet photography is a powerful way to inform viewers, reveal partial truths, provide new perspective, offer deeper insight, and act as a medium for artistic expression.

Living Space was a site specific video installation at the first panopticon style prison, opened in 1829 and based on the Quaker-inspired system of isolation, turned museum. Time-lapse images were recorded throughout the space and compiled into distinct videos, each featuring a different location and duration of elapsed time within the penitentiary.

These short videos feature mundane aspects of the space often neglected or hidden from the naked eye. This photographic process of discovery reveals the course of change constantly occurring within the penitentiary walls, a simultaneous experience of growth and decay. It is these continual changes that give life and breath to this place.

Each video was placed within a cell, behind a cell door and viewed through a small opening to provide an intimate screening. Offering visitors the opportunity to observe the space over the course of time, the installation presented an otherwise unknowable visual experience, ultimately revealing the decaying structure and record of past social norms as an otherwise dynamic, active and living space.

Anna Norton

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