Forty Together
The friendship is apparent in Tracey Derrick’s photographs, which are remarkable for their intimacy. Whether documenting the boredom, the isolation and the alienation of prison life, or capturing the friendship, community, creativity and fun that the women create within it, the photographs are a deeply personal record, for both photographer and subject.
Pick ‘n Pay generously funded the teaching project and a preliminary hanging of the work was shown at Malmesbury Pick n’ Pay. An entry in Derrick’s diary near the end of the project reads: "A year with the women of Malmesbury prison - compact, intimate daily life inside, locked away.
Much activity around the preening process - dressing up, creating hairstyles, manicures - a luxury hotel offering all the beauty salon services, doing time, spending time in a closed space, forty together – forty strong, forty vicious, forty loving, forty different histories living together, 24 hours a day, non-stop."
