In 1998 I made my first photographic series of the Carabanchel prison, Madrid, which was demolished in 2008.
From this first year there are two 35mm black and white reels. The jail is documented in a perfect state of preservation, since the last prisoners had only been transferred a week ago.
«This is humanly difficult to understand, but you can see it in the Institutions. And what I saw in this (Madrid Penitentiary Psychiatric Assistance Center) is that, indeed, the level of survival was such that all the social classes that existed, each one went to his own way; the doctors weren’t interested, the only thing that worried them about our visit is not that they might draw any conclusions or anything. No, no, it’s that it meant more rigidity in their schedules, that they were longer or whatever; the civil servants, specifically, I don’t know what they were afraid of because I think they were the people, from the ranks that there were, more neutral. I mean, they were there maybe more comfortable than in a normal jail; the convicted «nurses», who were at «destination» there, redeeming a sentence, since the only thing they were interested in was serving a sentence and leaving as soon as possible; and the poor sick, the last step, is that they no longer complained about anything. They were already, as it were, psychologically speaking, «one step before death». Who cared? Nobody. »
Transcript of the interview with Enrique González Duro, (La Guardia de Jaén, 1939) is a Spanish psychiatrist, university professor, historian and writer.
