New Orleans–based photographic artist Deborah Luster uses antiquated technologies, such as tintype, to document and artistically portray violent crime and related topics. She is best known for her series One Big Self: Prisoners of Louisiana, which she undertook in 1998 with poet C.D. Wright. This portrait series takes as its subject prisoners from three Louisiana prisons, including the infamous Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, the largest maximum-security prison in the United States. Most of the over 5,000 prisoners incarcerated at Angola serve life sentences, often on death row, spending the majority of their time in solitary confinement. Inmates must work "The Farm," a massive plot of land that harks back to the site’s former days as a plantation once worked by enslaved people from the nation of Angola. The prison has become known for brutality, riots, escape, and murder.

In her 2003 monograph (One Big Self, Twin Palms Publishing), Luster writes, “I chose to photograph each person as they presented their very own selves before my camera on the chance that I might be fortunate enough to contact, as poet Jack Gilbert writes ‘their hearts in their marvelous cases.’” These sittings empowered individuals typically not permitted personal expression and resulted in portraits that are individualistic, diverse, and emotionally compelling.

Building on the aforementioned series, the works on view in True Likeness were also photographed at Angola Prison, during the Angola Prison Drama Club’s 2012-13 staging of The Life of Jesus Christ. The play, which featured 70 inmates in costume and a real camel, was performed for the general public. For her series Passion Play, Luster photographed inmates, including Levelle “Black” Tolliver and James Blackburn, pictured here, in their costumes. Performing in theatrical productions allowed the incarcerated individuals, many of whom are likely to die at Angola, to briefly escape their bleak realities. Many of the performers noted the special meaning this play, about the trial, suffering, and death of Jesus Christ, had for them – and the unexpected connections they made with their characters.

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