The Golden State

2017

The Golden State examines California's death row, the largest death row population in the United States (746 at the time this was made).  The body of work was created using mugshots for the entire 746 predominantly male death row inmates, organized and compiled by last names with each layer treated identically over a golden colored canvas.  The more densely populated, the more the golden canvas is replaced by grays and blues.  The resulting composite portraits confront the undeniable racial makeup of California's death row (where 66.75% are minorities*) as well as the inevitable loss of identity created by mass incarceration.  This is a small selection of the twenty-six pieces that were created.  

*In March of 2019 California Governor Gavin Newsom signed an executive order preventing the state from carrying out any executions.  Read more about it here.

*https://www.cdcr.ca.gov/Capital_Punishment/docs/CondemnedInmateSummary.pdf?pdf=Condemned-Inmates