WINNERS

Overload

  • Photographer
    Sebastian Bahr, Germany
  • Prize
    Honorable Mention

California State Prison in Lancaster, located on desolate flat lands cut by a grid of rural roads entailing speeding cars, spiked with farms and little villages next to the 173,500 people city of Lancaster. The setting could not have been more fitting for this facility, which was 'overcrowded' with an occupancy rate of up to 216 % for most of its operation time even with several expansion constructions. This place, with its old prison towers from the 60s, emanates a weird mixture of gloom, loneliness and tremulousness while also giving one the feeling of respect for the power of the state.