Angola Prison Rodeo
By Frank McMains
20 Oct 2009
"For those who live out their lives there, Angola is the world. Eighteen thousand acres of land elbow out into the brown current of the Mississippi. The cuts and pine collared bluffs of the Tunica Hills drop abruptly into flat, alluvial farmland. The arsenic green fields of Angola drop further; into batture pits stalked by egrets and spiked, primordial alligators. Then the land rises again into containment levees, spines of the great organism laid out for the struggle between man and society that is Angola. A field upon which the battle between humanity and its origins in the thick, wet clay of nature is joined. Whether we know or care to acknowledge the fact, Angola is a thing written on the earth about ourselves.
North out of Baton Rouge, past the petrochemical plants, past the graceful anachronism of St. Francisville, a road splits off from Highway 61 and heads west towards the river. Twenty-six miles of two-lane blacktop follow a gentle valley through wooded hills. An ancient, gothic brick church stands abandoned among hay bales; wood-framed houses lean into the vegetation and then the traveler is there. Ringlets of razor wire mark the line between southern, rural locality and the state's only maximum-security prison. And as Louisiana seems like a place compelled to do things differently, so Angola is a different sort of prison."
This photo essay is a companion piece to an upcoming story on art produced by the inmates of Louisiana's Angola State Penitentiary. The above quote is taken from that article. (available online 1st November, 2009 at www.countryroadsmagazine.com)
3 responses
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Neil Maclean said (21 Oct 2009):
Great story Frank
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elise brian said (21 Oct 2009):
being a louisianian myself - this is on my list of things i'd like to see one day! great story and pics.
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Frank McMains said (22 Oct 2009):
Thanks Neil and Elise!
More Photo Essays
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Photo Essay — 9 Nov 2009
These photos were taken between Vidalia and New Roads, Louisiana along Highways 15 and 1.
