There was not as much graffiti as I expected to find, but this one is about as clear as you can be and fits well with what we envision of prison life. - www.retake.com

I received an exclusive one-day pass to capture the former death row prison in Nashville, TN. It changed my perspectives on several issues. Well known movies filmed here include: The Green Mile, Against the Wall, The Last Castle, Ernest Goes to Jail, Marie, and Nashville.

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In simple magic marker, during the intake process the prisoner is required to strip, in full view of the security officers.

Back when this death row was actually in use, security was obviously incredibly tight. Not only did the multiple locks fascinate me, but the "unlucky" 13 struck me as apropos. See the small shelf, which served two purposes. The first was to slide food through. The second was to have the inmate stand with his back to it, extending both hands outside the door so that he could be handcuffed before his legs and arms were chained.

These two prisoners decided to decorate their small, sparse cell with red paint. Where they got it is a mystery. Shot from the floor with a 14 mm lens, about the widest you can go without a barrel effect.

There was not as much graffiti as I expected to find, but this one is about as clear as you can be and fits well with what we envision of prison life.

This wall was in the exercise yard for the death row inmates. It features multiple paint jobs, all peeling at different rates but in the process creating a remarkable piece of art. What's left in the yard are weights, a pull-up bar, and a boxing stand.

A narrow metal hallway on the third floor of the regular prisoner's cells. The death row prisoners were held in a much smaller, one-storey building. They didn't share a cell, either.

This glass-paned wall would have been one of the death row inmate's last sights as he walked toward the electric chair and was strapped in.

This is where the phone would have been plugged in, right up until the last minute, when the soon to be executed prisoner would hope for a call from the governor granting clemency. I spent several hours on this one, getting the light just right. It's a 3-part HDR, 100 MB, ISO 200, 70mm, 5.0 second exposure at f/13.

The electric chair has been removed to be used in the new death row prison, just a few miles away, but you still get a sense of what the execution chamber looked like. The hood above leads to fresh air, likely to remove the smell of burning flesh. There are also hundreds of red rivulets of what looks like blood on the inside of the hood.

There was not as much graffiti as I expected to find, but this one is about as clear as you can be and fits well with what we envision of prison life.

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Keywords: nashville prison graffiti prison cell

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