Life Goes In Circles

www.photographersdirect.com – Cynthia Martone

www.cynthiamartone.com  – Loving Through Bars

Photography is an extraordinary technology; it saves the human awareness of our existence and makes it visible and public. It is a means to portray beautiful, immoral, and grievous images that arouse an emotional experience.  For me, it is an unadulterated passion. It takes me out into the world where I capture intimate reflections on things most people would rarely give a second look.  Photography is the Projection of the Soul.

Photography Awards

International Photography Award (2008)
Pixiport Fine Art Photography (2007)
PX3 Prix De La Photographie Paris (2007)
National Photo Competition (2004)

Solo Gallery Exhibitions

Eye on Qatar   Marriott Hotel, Qatar (2009)
Eye on Qatar   Al Hosh Al Qatari Lil Funoon Art Gallery, Qatar (December 2008)
Tragedy Love Fate   Marriott Hotel, Qatar (April 2008)
Loving Through Bars   Marriott Hotel, Qatar (February 2008)
Haiti Worlds Apart   Marriot Hotel, Qatar (March 2007)
Eclectic Array   Marriot Hotel, Qatar (June 2007)
Haiti   Blasco Library, Pennsylvania (August 2007)

More than 2.3 million children in the United States have a parent in prison. These children are innocent victims, their lives filled with instability and uncertainty and damaged by stigma and shame. Children with an incarcerated parent comprise a neglected segment of our society lost in a vicious cycle that often leads to future criminality and deviant social behavior. They are child prisoners—children who must learn to understand living and loving through bars. For me, the discovery began when I learned of the circumstances surrounding two students- a second-grade girl and her first-grade brother. When I realized the children were going to be spending the weekend with their incarcerated father at the infamous Attica State Prison, and I read a letter in their file from their father asking that he be allowed to participate in his children’s education, I found myself determined to understand all aspects of the situation: what the children would experience, what their father was trying to accomplish, how the nature of their relationship had been affected by the incarceration of the father. . . The very word “prison” evokes a sense of doom, of a dark pit for the soul. Prisons are bleak places, but to children with someone they love behind those bars, the surroundings become secondary to the stolen moments of being loved—of loving—that can occur within prison walls. For the sake of these children, I chose to enter the prison world through their eyes. Thus began my journey into thoughts, feelings, and experiences I had never encountered. It was a decision that changed my life.

Excerpt taken from: Loving Through Bars

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There are millions of us ~ we are cloaked in shame, neglected and loving through prison bars…We are innocent victims; our lives are filled with instability and uncertainty and we are damaged by a stigma and shame. We have been neglected by our society and lost in a vicious cycle that often leads to future criminality and deviant social behavior. We are child prisoners—we are learning to understand living and loving through bars.  The prisons we visit are bleak places but when you have someone you love behind those bars, the dark pit becomes less important then the stolen moments of being loved—of loving—that we feel when we are behind the prison walls.

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“Every Saturday ~ we are buzzed into an outdoor cage like animals. The second buzz lets us pass to the prison where my mom is. We made stuff for mom but we had to mail it to her, they wouldn’t let us bring it in. I’m nine years old but I have to take care of my dad and brother. There is only time for work and being a mother to my brother.  We sit every week and wait for mom to come into the room. My brother is seven and always jumps into my mom’s arms. “I missed you!” he would say and tightly wraps his arms around her neck.  I’m mad at her. Every week she asks me, “Catrina, don’t I get a hello or a hug?” I get up and give her a hug, I hate coming here.”  Any potential she may have to be a parent is dormant as far as this child is concerned…

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“I was only six years old but I will never forget that night; it was like it happened yesterday. I was in bed and I heard a bunch of noise that scared me. I went to see what was happening and as I was walking down the hallway a cop was walking towards me with a gun pointed at me. He started screaming, ‘Who is it? Who’s coming?’ The officer picked me up and carried me into the living room. I saw my mom and dad on the floor; the police had handcuffed them and had guns to their heads. I was crying so hard they let my mom sit on the couch with me. The walls were all broken. The police took my dad, they only wanted him. Because of drugs.”

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“I still got love for my dad. So, I went through the process of talking to the prison counselors, because you gotta get permission cause you’re both incarcerated. They now read your letter that you sent him to make sure it ain’t no, ‘I’m breaking out of jail so meet me here on this date’ kind of thing. That was very degrading. You can’t say what you want to say—because if you reminisce about old times they’re going to find out about stuff. He told me, Oh, I’m sorry I was ruining your life for the last 10 years and all this other. I believed him then, cause I was manipulating him cause I knew I’d burned all my bridges except for him. He burned me. He owed me.  We’ve been writing for six months.  I’m out on bail now but he is still in prison.  I don’t write much now.”

The greatest terror a child can have is that he is not loved, and rejection is the hell he fears…And with rejection comes anger, and with anger some kind of crime in revenge. – Immortalized and Echoed by Steinbeck.

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There is a vicious cycle that sees children with parents in prison follow in their footsteps… “You’re just like your father. He’s just like him—evil. Do you want to end up in jail just like your father? Did you tell them how you don’t listen and how you threaten your mother with knives, that you’re going to cut her up?!” Did you tell them how you swear at her with filthy language, how you say, ‘Fuck You,’ and call her a bitch? He even draws pictures of her bleeding, with him holding knives in his hands. “My daughter lives in fear.” You’re a bad boy!” she yelled at him. “Go ahead, tell the police how you held a hammer over your mother’s head and told your mother she had to go to sleep sometime.”

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“The first time my dad went to prison I was about three. I remember he was there one minute and the next minute he was gone. When I was about nine years old he came home again. I feel mainly if he hadn’t went to prison as many times as he did, we would have a better relationship than what we do now.  I’m angry because I felt I was missing something. I have no father, I mean I have a father but as really having a father— I don’t have no father. I never really had a father, it was either jail or streets, and either way it goes one of them was more important then me and it seemed to always be, jail or streets. I used to write poetry, But I haven’t lately, Who would I show it to…? About him in prison, about shame, About waiting, About loving someone, Anyway.”

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“I am writing to you concerning my children April in second grade and Joseph in first who attend your school. As you can see by my return address I’m currently incarcerated. I still have all my parental rights and have concerns with my children’s education.  I would like to know what I need to do to be able to obtain academic and medical records concerning my children periodically. Also the names of their teachers, counselors, and a name of a contact that I can address concerns to as they arise. Please let me know exactly what steps I need to take to obtain this information and maintain an active role in my children’s education and well being. I would like to thank you in advance for your time and concern in this matter. I look forward to hearing from you in the near future.”

Sincerely,

Steven

Some are born to those with obscured principles, delusive ambitions, and erroneous perceptions of reality in opposition with society, the law and their role as a parent.