Professor João Pina Teaches Photography to Incarcerated at Metropolitan Detention Center
Adjunct Assistant Professor of Visual Arts João Pina is teaching a 'Visualizing History' class inside the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, part of the Justice in Education Program presented by the Columbia Center For Justice, in collaboration with the MFA Visual Arts Program at School of the Arts. Through this program, Columbia University offers classes to incarcerated individuals in New York.
Pina first taught Visualizing History in the History Department. The course explores the relationship between photography and history in crises across the world in modern times, from the Crimean War to the war in Ukraine, from a Portuguese internment camp for political prisoners to the U.S. Civil Rights Movement, the Arab Spring, and the current refugee crisis. Students use a combination of visual materials to trace the role of photography in history as well as the impact of changing photographic media, from large format cameras to cell phones.
Professor Geraldine Downey, Director of the Center for Justice, said, “We're excited to welcome João Pina to the Justice in Education Prison Education Program, in partnership with the Visual Arts department. Pina's work on photography, memory, and historical trauma offers students an opportunity to critically explore history, reflecting our commitment to rigorous educational experiences in correctional settings.”
Pina said, “For someone who has often photographed in communities that have been suffering forms of violence, this is an opportunity to keep engaging with teaching the importance of art to people who have been ostracized by society for most of their existence.”
The only teaching materials allowed inside MDC are printed photographs. “It’s an experiment in socially responsible pedagogy with minimal tools,” said Associate Professor Naeem Mohaiemen, Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Visual Arts Department and Photography Concentration Head. “Usually when João teaches photography classes within the Visual Arts department, he has access to a set of Computer workstations, Darkroom, Print Room, bookmaking equipment, field trips, and guest speakers. At MDC he has to teach with minimal tools which is a pedagogical challenge and opportunity.”
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João Pina works both with photography, archives, and moving images. Born in Portugal, he has lived and worked for the last 25 years mostly in Latin America focusing on the human condition and human rights. His work has been published in The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Washington Post, Time Magazine, National Geographic Magazine, GEO, Stern Magazine, El Pais, Le Monde, among others.
He is the author of four monographs, Por teu livre pensamento (Assírio & Alvim, 2007) portraying 25 former political prisoners from Portugal; CONDOR (Tinta-da-china/Blume/Ed. Sous-sol, 2014) about the military dictatorships in South America in the 1970’s; and 46750 (Tinta-da-china/Loco/FotoEvidence, 2018) about endemic violence in Rio de Janeiro and Tarrafal (Tinta-da-china/GOST, 2024) documenting a former Portuguese concentration camp in in Cape Verde.