Wellsi Cantrell, Angola, Louisiana 31 - 1999

Deborah Luster made this photograph, "Wellsi Cantrell, Angola, Louisiana," using the 19th-century process of tintype photography. The image depicts a man in a straw cowboy hat and a black and white striped shirt. Knowing the location is Angola, Louisiana, we see that the shirt is a prison uniform, and the hat marks him as a participant in the prison rodeo. The Louisiana State Penitentiary, known as Angola, has a long and troubled history rooted in the plantation system. Formerly a slave plantation, it became a prison in 1901 and the state’s primary maximum-security prison. Luster's decision to use tintype connects the history of photography to the history of incarceration in the US. The tintype process, most popular during the Civil War era, has a stark immediacy that highlights both the individual and the social conditions that shape his life. Examining the archive of prison records can help us better understand the cultural significance of this image.