Bulldog Clock. Image courtesy aspex.

Exhibition Preview - Still Life, Killing Time, by Edmund Clark, at aspex gallery, Portsmouth, until 22 March 2008.

Few members of the public would sympathise with the lives of jailed serious offenders. But what happens when these life prisoners become old? How do they adapt to their life in prison?

Still Life, Killing Time, by photographer Edmund Clark, at aspex gallery, Portsmouth, offers a rare insight into these questions.

Clark was granted two years of privileged access to E Wing of Kingston Prison in Portsmouth. For eight years this was Britain’s only wing dedicated to holding ageing life prisoners. These inmates, aged from their late 50s to over 80 years old, included convicted murderers, rapists, paedophiles and other violent criminals.

Clark's large format, dramatic colour photographs portray the stark order and claustrophobic atmosphere of living and working in the prison. In one picture a walking stick rests against a regulation bedside cabinet, the only evidence of an individual life in the sparse cell.

In another, an artificial Christmas tree does its best to provide a bit of cheer in a depressingly drab recreation room.

Stick. Image courtesy aspex

Clark’s series of still life compositions does not attempt to provoke empathy with the institutionalised lives of these old men. It is a brave and controversial subject and results in powerful and poignant images of the attempts of these prisoners to create a sense of personalised home.

“It is hard to look at this brilliant study of E Wing and not feel uneasy,” said Erwin James, writer, columnist and former life prisoner. “We do not need to see the people whose lives these stark images depict. Their absence serves only to increase the power of these images.”

The exhibition is not simply reporting on a particular prison, it is an examination of the effects of long term incarceration, the passing of time and the effects of physical decline in these spaces. What happens when imposed punishment challenges an old man’s changing needs?

The photographer uses symbolism reminiscent of 17th century Dutch ‘Vanitas’ still life paintings to transcend the ordinary, bringing a creepy sense of stale monotony to life by focusing on the mundane aspects of worldly existence.

The award-winning photographer Simon Norfolk has described Edmund Clark as one of our best photographers and finest humanists. With this exhibition Clark has staged a portrait of the ageing lifer in a wing designated as the end of the line for prisoners unable or unwilling to earn parole.

Christmas Communal Area. Image courtesy aspex

A series of accompanying events are also taking place. On Wednesday February 13, Edmund Clark will be conversation with David Chandler, Director of Photoworks in Brighton, about technical and artistic processes.

On Wednesday February 27 a specially selected panel will discuss the social and political issues of Clark’s work, and from February 20 to March 9, Young Lives – a photography exhibition by Wessex Youth Offenders will be on display at aspex gallery.

This is an exhibition preview - if you have been to see the show, why not let us know what you think?