Between the dates of November 11th 2013 - March 11th 2014, I spent over 150 hours inside the walls of the ZurquiÌ Prison in Costa Rica. I am the first photographer in 20 years granted permission to enter the cells. What I found was overcrowding, adults mixed with children, and because of the shortage of beds and the lack of bathrooms - most of the rooms simply had a hole in the floor - many inmates slept in their own urine and feces along side the rats and cockroaches that infested the entire facility. In the past four years the population has quadrupled. El Centro de FormacioÌn Juvenil ZurquiÌ now houses 68 children and 122 adults, 10 of whome are women. What I found was profound and compelling. With your support I can continue to expand upon this project.
Madeline is Senior Art Director for Jump Cut NYC, as well as an independent fine art and documentary photographer. She was a recipient of the Pollux Award in 2019, the Julia Margaret Cameron Award in 2018 and nominated for the Henri Cartier-Bresson Award in 2015. In 2014 she received her MFA and BFA from La Universidad Veritas in San José, Costa Rica where she studied photography and film. After graduating she completed the short documentary film ‘PRIVADOS DE LIBERTAD’ about the impact of imprisonment on male youth in Costa Rica.
