Pictures of Crime and Punishment Around the World | PROOF

Pictures of Crime and Punishment Around the World

France 4 25 13 Lille Prison 0142

How humans handle crime, and how we dole out punishment, is the question that gnaws at Jan Banning. Before he was a photographer, he was a student of history—less interested in spectacle and more interested in the slow, structural development of systems. Before delving into the world of criminal justice, he spent years photographing bureaucrats around the world, comparing civil servants on five different continents. After he was finished examining the executive branch, he decided to take on the judiciary, which imposes criminal sentences