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.
«On the step of the prison psychiatric, if the top was the doctor, and I suppose that the chaplain would also be there. The last step was the pure and simple patient. There were three scales of patients: the «nurses», who had a «status» (…) of psychiatric assistants or a similar function, later, the privileged patients, and lastly, those who were «poor devils», and among the «poor devils», those who had no money were the worst off. There was a striking social stratification. In the Psychiatry Institution in general, and in this one in particular, there are always institutionalized patients who are less sick than the rest, they are very useful to the Institution, that is why they keep them as long as possible, because they lend themselves to be errand boys, etc. And they are people who are not very bad psychologically. They are a series of sick and ill.»
Transcript of the interview with Enrique González Duro, (La Guardia de Jaén, 1939) is a Spanish psychiatrist, university professor, historian and writer.
