The "Torturer"

How do you photograph slavery?

Antigua has a long history of slavery but for many people that is in the past but I wanted to do at least one picture that illustrated this past. Just a few feet from where I slept lies a sentinel to a darker side of Antiguan history: A heavy stone dungeon nicknamed ‘The Torturer’. This was used to punish the least productive slaves and several died of heat exhaustion while incarcerated here. It is quiet and empty now.

So how to illustrate this dark stain on the past? Perhaps with hope for the future? A friend of mine had a daughter aged four and she was playing with a friend of hers.I got them to play around the ruin, one white and blonde, one black, both Antiguan.

It worked for me.

Back to the picture.