In January 2020, Alec Soth received a letter from Chris Fausto Cabrera, an inmate of the Minnesota Correctional Facility in Rush City, in which he asked the photographer to engage in a dialogue. This sparked an expansive and insightful correspondence over the following nine months which, set against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, Black Lives Matter Movement and growing unrest, reaches to the heart of contemporary America. In amongst their exchanges of personal histories and shared influences – from Ralph Ellison’s The Invisible Man and André 3000, to Robert Frank’s The Americans and Rilke’s 'Letters to a Young Poet' – developed a searing investigation of the redemptive power of art and the imagination, justice and accountability, life inside America’s prisons, and the astonishing capacity of empathy and curiosity to bring two people together.
All proceeds from this book will be donated to the Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop.
“One of the most insightful and moving meditations on the power of photography to encourage new ways of thinking, connect communities, reflect on personal narratives and imagine alternative futures.” – Alona Pardo, Curator, The Barbican.
"[The Parameters of our Cage] offers a powerful meditation on photography and society." – BuzzFeed, Best Books of 2020
“Soth and Cabrera grapple with complex topics that reflect larger undercurrents running within the country… They confide deep personal truths and discuss photography and art through a critical lens.” – CNN
“An astonishing book” - The Guardian
“A rich and profound dialogue…which has allowed Soth to deepen his interest in the relation between photography and confinement.” – El País
128 pp, Paperback with two postcards
Published by MACK Books, 2020
12.5 x 19.5cm
English
