At Volterra Maximum Security Prison, in 1998 the director Armando Punzo established the “Compagnia della Fortezza”, a theatre company formed with dangerous felons and hardcore “lifers”.
With my camera I’ve begun to show how the method of acting in prison can be a useful tool in changing the way the criminal mind works.
In Volterra prison theatre is considered to be a highly motivational therapeutic method of working with violent offenders. It has produced positive results for educating prisoners to become functioning members of mainstream society by teaching them how to read, how to work collaboratively, and how to be responsible for each other, as well as themselves.
Prison theatre is about redemption. Through the process of learning how to play a role they learn how to make wiser decisions when they are released into society. They learn a profession, they become actors, not only prisoners. They go on tour all around Italy performing to sold- out crowds. At the end of the show they are escorted to the local prison for the night.
The Inmate Aniello Arena, , one of the actors that I have been photographing for over five years, is serving a 20-year-to –life term for double murder, was nominated last year in Cannes as best actor in Garrone’s new movie, Reality.
Clara Vannucci
I have always been interested in photography, since i was very young. After a degree in graphic design, at the University of Architecture of Florence, I decided to make my passion for photography become my life and my profession. I started what became my most important project: Theatre in prison in Tuscany.
In NYC, after an Internship with Magnum Photos, with the help of Photojournalist Donna Ferrato, (that I have been assisting for over two years) I started a project in Rikers Island Jail’s Battered women section.
My clients and publications include La Repubblica, L’espresso, Touring, Private, La stampa, Class, Choc Magazine, The New York Times, The New York times Lens, OmA, Il corriere della sera, STERN FOR Ça M’intéresse, Io donna, Le courrier International, Le journal de la photographie, Life Style Mirror, Ermanno Scervino, Luisa via Roma, Nestlè, Grazia France, Vogue IT.
I’m represented by DB Daria Bonera Agency for Advertising. Now I’ve been awarded a yearlong residency at FABRICA, the communication research center of Benetton group in Treviso.
