Eric T. Kunsman: Solitude, 2012, archival pigment print - Lucia print on edition etching rag, 30" x 30" x 1"

Courtesy of HOTE Gallery

About:

In 2003, shortly after moving back to the Philadelphia area, I brought a group of my photography students from Mercer County Community College to the Eastern State Penitentiary on a field trip. It was a great photographic site. The reports I had heard about the architecture of the facility were definitely true, and the light and feeling of abandonment really gave off a sense that the Penitentiary might still be inhabited by ghosts or spirits. But there are a lot of abandoned spaces like that, so my first trip to the site would probably have been my last if I didn't return to Philadelphia on a completely different class trip a few weeks later - this time, as a student.

On that trip, one of my University of Arts professors, Heidi Kyle, introduced us to the American Philosophical Society's conservation lab. Almost as soon as we entered the conservation lab, I noticed three books titled 'Eastern State Warden's Logbook.' I opened it idly?and then spent the entire visit pouring over its pages.

The Warden's entries brought the Penitentiary to life for me. Through his words, the space now felt inhabited and connected to deep emotions - infused with new meaning. Though his writing is detached, the warden clearly got to know the prisoners far more personally than you would expect. The logs include details about prisoners' families, whether they could read or write, whether they felt guilty about their crimes, whether they were penitent. While my photographs from the earlier visit captured a lot of the physical presence and feeling of the Penitentiary, it was the writings that started to, literally, flesh out the functional and human effects of this altruistic, but ultimately disastrous, Quaker experiment with reforming criminals. On that day, the genesis for this show clicked.

I started returning to the Penitentiary. During each trip it was at least a half hour before I could start photographing. I found myself instantly reflecting on some of the Warden's words, wandering through the space, and rediscovering things through his eyes and his reflections.

Bio:

Eric T. Kunsman (b. 1975) was born and raised in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. While in high school, he was heavily influenced by the death of the steel industry and its place in American history. The exposure to the work of Walker Evans during this time hooked Eric onto photography. Eric had the privilege to study under Lou Draper, who became Eric's most formative mentor. He credits Lou with influencing his approach as an educator, photographer, and contributing human being.

Eric holds his MFA in Book Arts/Printmaking from The University of the Arts in Philadelphia and holds an MS in Electronic Publishing/Graphic Arts Media, BS in Biomedical Photography, BFA in Fine Art photography all from the Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, New York.

www.erickunsman.com