Looking Inside

Former public defender Sara Bennett spent over a decade photographing women convicted of homicide and sentenced to life in prison in New York State. Her long-term project traces the women’s lives across time and space: inside prison walls, in their post-incarceration bedrooms, and as they re-enter the outside world after decades behind bars.
Through intimate portraits and personal ephemera—Polaroids, letters, drawings, and handwritten notes—Bennett creates a layered narrative that offers a rare perspective, resisting stereo-type. Looking Inside: Women with Life Sentences is a striking re-minder of the complexity and humanity of women who are, and have always been, far more than the single act that sent them to prison for life.  
The publication is complemented by a powerful afterword by Judith Clark, who served 38 years in prison and is now Director of the Survivors Justice Project, alongside additional pictorial endnotes by Bennett that further expand the project’s context.
From the book:
Just because we ask for a second chance at life doesn’t mean we have forgotten what we have done; it means we were once part of the problem and to heal those we have hurt, we must be part of the solution, part of the conversation. You’ve held the state ac-countable by our punishment. Now let us show you how we’ve held ourselves accountable to your pain.

Sara Bennett: Looking Inside, Women with Life Sentences, Texts by Sara Bennett, Judith Clark
Designed by Teun van der Heijden, Heijdens Karwei Softcover with inner and outer cover, laser die-cutting, and shortened pages