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BAMPFA’s ‘San Quentin Project’ looks at life inside the state prison

The exhibition includes nearly 30 mapping exercises that the men of San Quentin made in collaboration with artist Nigel Poor.

By Anne Brice

a prisoner in shorts lifts a barbell the image image is surrounded by annotations — "Gym Profile," (2013) by Harold Meeks and Nigel Poor, from the San Quentin State Prison Archive, 1975, printed in 2018. (Photo by unknown, courtesy of Nigel Poor and the San Quentin State Prison Museum, with thanks to Warden Ron Davis and Lieutenant Sam Robinson)

September 17, 2019

photos in an exhibit at BAMPFA — A new exhibit at BAMPFA, "The San Quentin Project: Nigel Poor and the Men of San Quentin State Prison," follows the evolution of artist Nigel Poor’s social art practice and her collaboration with the men incarcerated at San Quentin State Prison in Marin County, California. (Photo by JKA Photography)

a photo with writing all around it — "The San Quentin Project" evolved from Poor’s experience teaching visual literacy and the history of photography at the prison. In those courses, she asked her students to complete mapping exercises, an activity where the men would react to photographs made by notable artists, formally analyze the images and creatively explore their meaning. (Photo by JKA Photography)

two men standing very close together in a recreation prison courtyard — "Re-Creation" (2013) by Nigel Poor and Tommy Shakur Ross (Photo taken in 1975 by unknown, courtesy of Nigel Poor with thanks to Warden Ron Davis and Lieutenant Sam Robinson)

man and his toddler sitting on the grass — "Mother’s Day" (1976), from the San Quentin State Prison Archive, printed in 2018. (Photo by unknown, courtesy of Nigel Poor and the San Quentin State Prison Museum, with thanks to Warden Ron Davis and Lieutenant Sam Robinson)

four women standing in a line wearing the same 70s clothes smiling — "Soul Day" (1976), from the San Quentin State Prison Archive, printed in 2018. (Photo by unknown, courtesy of Nigel Poor and the San Quentin State Prison Museum, with thanks to Warden Ron Davis and Lieutenant Sam Robinson)

man in shorts lifting a barbell in prison — "Gym Profile," (2013) by Harold Meeks and Nigel Poor, from the San Quentin State Prison Archive, 1975, printed in 2018. (Photo by unknown, courtesy of Nigel Poor and the San Quentin State Prison Museum, with thanks to Warden Ron Davis and Lieutenant Sam Robinson)

a dummy head is held up in a prison cell — "Dummy in Cell" (1963), from the San Quentin State Prison Archive, printed in 2018. (Courtesy of Nigel Poor and the San Quentin State Prison Museum, with thanks to Warden Ron Davis and Lieutenant Sam Robinson)

prison official standing at the end of a long hallway — "Killed B Seg" (1965), from the San Quentin State Prison Archive, printed in 2018. (Photo by unknown, courtesy of Nigel Poor and the San Quentin State Prison Museum, with thanks to Warden Ron Davis and Lieutenant Sam Robinson)

a native american performs at the prison — "Indian Pow Wow" (2013) by George “Mesro” Coles-El and Nigel Poor. (Photo courtesy of Nigel Poor, with thanks to Warden Ron Davis and Lieutenant Sam Robinson)

three listening stations and a video on the wall of an Ear Hustle interview — The exhibit features a listening station with select episodes of "Ear Hustle," a podcast that evolved out of Poor's courses, which features stories of life inside prison, shared and produced by those living it. (Photo by JKA Photography)

prison guard holding up a knife — "Weeks Stabbing in the Gym" (2013), by Nigel Poor and Shadeed Wallace-Stepter, from the San Quentin State Prison Archive, 1963. (Photo by unknown, courtesy of Nigel Poor, with thanks to Warden Ron Davis and Lieutenant Sam Robinson)

two men crouch with tennis rackets — "Tennis" (1976), from the San Quentin State Prison Archive, printed in 2018. (Photo by unknown, courtesy of Nigel Poor and the San Quentin State Prison Museum, with thanks to Warden Ron Davis and Lieutenant Sam Robinson)

a farmer's market with pumpkins and a house burning in the background — "Mapping Joel Sternfeld, side A," (2011/12), by Nigel Poor and Frankie Smith. (Image courtesy of Nigel Poor, with thanks to the Prison University Project)

These days, artist Nigel Poor is probably best known as a co-host of Ear Hustle, a podcast that takes listeners behind the scenes of San Quentin State Prison and gives an intimate view of what it’s like to be an inmate at the men’s correctional facility in Marin, County.

But before Ear Hustle, in 2011, Poor began volunteering as a professor for the Prison University Project, a nonprofit that provides higher education at the prison. In her visual literacy and photography courses, she asked her students to react to photos — by notable photographers and from the prison’s photo archive — and explore their meaning in what she called “mapping exercises.”

From these courses came The San Quentin Project: Nigel Poor and the Men of San Quentin State Prison, now on display at BAMPFA through Nov. 17, 2019. The exhibition includes nearly 30 mapping exercises that the men of San Quentin made in collaboration with Poor. It also presents photos from an uncatalogued archive of thousands of negatives made inside the prison from the 1930s to the 1980s. And, Ear Hustle fans can listen to select episodes of the podcast at a listening station.