Vintage polaroids of female prisoners paint an intimate picture of womanhood and identity

CNN — What is perhaps most striking about the 32 photographs that make up Jack Lueders-Booth’s new book, “Women Prisoner Polaroids,” is the intimacy that occupies each frame. “Miriam Van Waters, the first superintendent at Massachusetts Correctional Institute Framingham, was insistent that they not use this unfortunate period in their lives to form their identity,” the photographer told CNN in a video interview, relaying the Massachusetts’ prison’s early objectives. Often the same age as the prisoners, many of them were studying criminal justice at Northeastern University, a co-operative college.” While initially expected to be a year-long assignment, photographer Jack Lueders-Booth worked at the prison teaching photography to inmates from 1977 to 1984, and taking photos along the way. Many of the inmates had dependent children who were placed with relatives or court-appointed foster parents Jack Lueders-Booth Alongside imagery, Lueders-Booth's book also features prisoners' oral histories of the time.