May 10 - June 8, 2025
The Reef DTLA, 4th FloorOpening reception and book signing, Saturday, May 10, 6-9 pm
Los Angeles, CA. A Poor Imitation of Death by Ara Oshagan is a collaborative and multidisciplinary project about youth in the California prison system. Through photography, collage, poetry, personal testimony, installation and the voices and handwriting of the youth themselves, photographer Ara Oshagan creates deeply moving and personal portraits of Duc, Liz, Anait, Peter, Sandra, Efrain and Myra– all youth who enter the justice as juveniles but are tried as adults and sent to adult prisons with severe sentences. Their stories are layered and complex: full of despair, raw emotion, and injustice but also inner strength and hope.
In the book’s postscript, Oshagan writes, “I realize that this project, beyond being about incarceration, is about connection, about breaking down barriers of perception, about a process to humanize these youth against a vast system– internal and external– that incessantly and ruthlessly dehumanizes them.”
The project highlights the inhumane treatment of youth in prison industrial complexes in the United States and is an impassioned plea of solidarity and empathy. It advocates for a more humanistic approach to incarceration and celebrates the resilience of the youth while honoring their stories and voices.
Celebrated radical compassion activist, Father Gregory Boyle, writes in the introduction to the book: “The book you hold in your hands is an enlightened witness. It points us to the culturally disparaged and asks us to stand in awe at what these kids have to carry, rather than in judgment at how they carry it.”
The project was undertaken in the early 2000’s and includes photographs from Los Angeles Central Juvenile Hall, state prisons across California as well as from the youth’s families, courthouses and victims.
The title, “A Poor Imitation of Death”, is from a poem by Liz– a 21-year-old incarcerated youth.
A Poor Imitation of Death exhibition is curated by ModA Curations and the book is published by Daylight Books, NY.
INSTALLATION VIEWS
EXHIBITION PROGRAM
May 15: Artists, activists and the formerly incarcerated reflect on incarceration
May 22: State of the American prison industrial complex
May 27: The role of image making in the US prison system