What is the purpose of prison, if not to punish? This photographic investigation, organized by the Association for the Promotion of Photography in the Canton of Neuchâtel (APPCN), examines the Swiss prison system, in particular the short detentions, at the La Promenade detention center in La Chaux-de-Fonds. In collaboration with prisoners, Laurence Rasti addresses the problem of the overrepresentation of vulnerable people in detention, by questioning a practice of imprisonment that seems to target the most precarious.

Laurence Rasti’s survey of the La Promenade detention facility in La Chaux-de-Fonds serves as a case study for more general questions about the challenges of confinement. It was important to her that those detained were given an active part in recording their experiences. Their handling of pinhole boxes transformed the ambient light into photographic traces that are as surprising as they are moving.
The harshness of concrete as a barrier to the tradition of prison graffiti challenged the artist to invent an equivalent means of expression, capable of relaying outside the walls the striking testimonies gathered within them. In harnessing the genre of portraiture, to which everyone could lend themselves freely, the exchange of glances, accepted and refused in equal measure, solicits empathy.