SAFE GROUND
UK charity Safe Ground helps men in prison and their families maintain and (re)build their relationships, creating stronger support networks when they leave prison, which is one of the most effective ways to reduce reoffending.
This case study includes the portrait above (‘Jon and the Bee’) which won the Portrait of Britain in 2020. This was taken in Jon’s garden as part of a project exploring masculinity and fatherhood in the criminal justice system.
Jon, Jason and Michael have all spent considerable periods of their lives in prison. We invited them to write about what masculinity and fatherhood meant to them, which I recorded and combined with photographs I took over several days with each man. The audiovisual pieces are below.
This was a very personal project for me. I am a dad to an 9 year-old boy, and my father was absent for most of my childhood. I'm really interested in what makes a good father, a good man, and how we bring up emotionally healthy young men who value themselves and the women, children and other men around them.
So I was very grateful for the chance to get to know these men, and help them tell their stories.
This work was used by Safe Ground for raising funds and awareness of what they do and how powerful and effective it is. The images were exhibited nationally on billboards as part of the Portrait of Britain campaign.
These images are included in course material, and for reports to donors and government to secure further funding.
