A photographer, photo editor, and formerly incarcerated author discuss the power of words and photos to reclaim life and identity.

The United States has a larger prison population than any other country in the world, with over 2 million people living behind bars. But it’s also staggering to look at the state-by-state numbers. At the beginning of 2020, Washington State had nearly as many incarcerated individuals as Sudan, a developing country that has five times as many citizens. Despite Washington’s legislature being run by progressive-identifying Democrats, many deeply entrenched barriers face people after they leave prison, which contributes to joblessness, homelessness, and recidivism.

Washington has largely abolished parole, and like many U.S. states, the average length of a felony sentence has dramatically increased since the early 2000s. “Many prisoners are spending longer and longer periods of time in prison and a growing number of these prisoners will die behind bars,” according to the ACLU of Washington. In most democratic countries, a long sentence is considered to be one or two years, and a sentence beyond 10 years is extremely rare.

For those who get out of prison in Washington State, one route to avoid recidivism is the education system. A college degree can re-level the playing field for someone with a felony conviction, opening doors that might have seen permanently shut. This path often starts while still in prison: Students behind bars earn their GEDs and take university-level courses. In December, Congress struck a deal to reinstate federal Pell Grants to incarcerated college students, a tuition resource that had been prohibited since the 1994 crime bill.

Last summer, University of Washington Magazine's photo editor Quinn Russell Brown commissioned Meron Menghistab to photograph 10 men and women who earned college degrees from the University of Washington after getting out of prison. Menghistab, named one of 2020’s 30 New and Emerging Photographers to Watch, is an editorial and commercial photographer known for putting his subjects at ease and creating quiet, moving portraits. As project manager for the feature, Brown also hired Omari Amili, a formerly incarcerated author, to recruit and interview the 10 people featured in the story.

Following the feature for University of Washington Magazine, Brown, Menghistab, and Amili connected to discuss this intimate and empowering project from the perspective of the photo editor, photographer, and interviewer.

Quinn Russell Brown, Meron Menghistab, and Omari Amili in conversation.