For exhibition of these images, photographer Deborah Luster commissioned the fabrication of a black, steel-drawered cabinet that holds the 4x5 portraits on metal. Personal information supplied by each inmate is engraved on the back of each photo. Viewers remove handfuls of images, shuffle through them, or arrange them on the cabinet top, touching the faces of Louisiana's "invisible" prison population.

"The images aren't true tintypes but rather silver emulsion on prepared aluminum, used like photographic paper under the enlarger," says Luster. "I wanted the photos to be handled by viewers and to suggest the history of the penal system. This technique on this material seemed to me to address those concerns."

The cabinet also houses a small handmade book with dedication, epigraphs, and basic information on the three prisons represented. It will eventually contain text by C. D. Wright.

"When Debbie began to photograph in the prisons in Louisiana, I was skeptical that my art could turn itself toward that environment. I felt a queasiness regarding poetry in tandem with portraits of prisoners," says Wright. "I agreed to come to Louisiana to see what I could see, to see what she was seeing. It was a summons."