Sing Sing 1992

James Casebere made "Sing Sing", sometime around now, using photography. It is an image of a model. The kind of model that architects use, made from simple forms, but this one is of a prison. The light across the building’s facade is so dramatic, it throws the architecture into sharp relief, as though a searchlight is raking across the surface. The image is still, but the light feels as though it is in motion. I like how Casebere has created something so solid and imposing out of something so flimsy. You get the sense that the real Sing Sing, the actual prison, is just a facade too. A social construct. An idea made real. The prison is so blank, it could be anything. A factory. A school. A hospital. Like the paintings of Edward Hopper, Casebere's image is full of implied narrative. The viewer is invited to fill in the blanks, to create their own story about this place, and the people within it.