Andrew Stokes: What led you to take on this project?

Geoffrey James: Everyone is curious about prisoners and prisons as they’re very mysterious places. The prison has a limited visual record and I felt like if I didn’t photograph it then nobody would — there would be no one who was able to walk through the space and capture a sense of how it feels before it closed.

AS: Your shots cover a wide range of time and throughout the series it’s evident the seasons are changing. Why did you make that choice?

GJ: I shot the photos from May to September because I usually work in that mode. Getting to shoot a number of different times is a luxury because you get to review your photos and see what you’ve captured and what you’re missing. When photographing the Pen I couldn’t really take being in there for more than three days at a time because it was too difficult for me.

AS: Many of the photos in the exhibition show vacant cells and empty spaces. Why did you make that decision?

GJ: I photographed most of the cells the day they were vacated when there was nobody in them because I didn’t want to pry or intrude into people’s space. What I captured instead was what people left behind. What the inmates left drawn or gouged on the walls was a significant part of the story and I feel like it spoke very eloquently.

AS: Many of the photos that do feature people come from an Aboriginal changing of the seasons ceremony you photographed. Is there a particular reason for that?

GJ: When I was walking around taking photos, group shots were very difficult. Most groups didn’t want anything to do with me, but with the Aboriginal group it was different. I found it very moving, and it was a situation where they weren’t like inmates anymore. They cooked their own food and so were able to eat elk stew and bannock. When I gathered them for a group photo, they were very proud to be together, and the warden even allowed me to produce a copy of the shot for each of them.

AS: This collection of photos exists somewhere between documentary photography and art photography. How do you negotiate the two genres?

GJ: I don’t really differentiate the two, and I really try to avoid making “art” photos. I avoid dressing like a photographer and never carry a camera bag or anything — the camera I do use looks rather quaint I think. My hope is to make intelligent photographs that do justice to their subjects and that are affecting in a simple way. 

For the past seven years, Scott McLean has been analyzing the archaeology of the Herstmonceux Castle estate in East Sussex, England. A new excavation program at the estate aims to uncover the ways medieval peoples adapted when the region went through climate change.

“Through combined excavations, archival research and environmental analysis we are hoping to reconstruct a better understanding of what the Herstmonceux Castle estate was like during the medieval period,” says Scott McLean, an associate professor of history at the Bader International Study Centre (BISC). “With the information we gather, we hope to learn more about how the owners coped with the fierce storms and rising sea levels that constituted this period of climate change.”

The Herstmonceux estate occupies 600 acres of land adjacent to the Pevensey Levels, an ecologically sensitive region that was repeatedly flooded starting in the 13th century when the world entered a period of global cooling known as the Little Ice Age.

Dr. McLean’s research scope has expanded with the excavation program that draws in collaborators from Queen’s University and the University of Waterloo. The program, which has received a $200,000 grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, will also place a strong focus on training students in archeology, archival research and public history research.

“The Herstmonceux Estate excavation provides an excellent opportunity for fruitful collaboration between experts at the BISC, Queen’s and the University of Waterloo,” says Steven Liss, Vice-Principal (Research). “Participating in and observing operations at the archaeological sites also represents a unique hands-on learning opportunity for students studying at the BISC.” 

After their first summer of excavation, the team has turned up evidence of an early manor house on the edge of Pevensey Levels. The researchers have also uncovered approximately 100 previously unknown medieval documents related to the castle and estate.

 Excavations at Herstmonceux Estate are planned to continue until 2017.