Crowbar Hotel

Crowbar Hotel is the culmination of contraband smartphone photos taken in prison by incarcerated Bloods and Crips gang members. Photos and videos were sent in by inmates, with content found by following their social media accounts. Most of the content was created between 2016 and 2019 from different CDCR state prisons in California, such as Lancaster, California City, Corcoran, Calipatria, and other facilities. The incarcerated depicted serve sentences varying from minimum to maximum, in security level one to level four. Young gangbangers ready to prove themselves and prison-hardened gangsters that have done twenty years and counting. The book is a visual anthropological documentation of the secret smartphone activity of Bloods and Crips gang members locked up in California state prisons; who also represent the majority of (online active) inmates. The content includes satellite photos of CDCR prison facilities, portraits, and video stills of inmates tattooing, working out, and cooking inside their cells.