No Cameras Allowed: Artist Molly Crabapple Draws What Really Goes Down in Guantanamo Bay

During two trips to the prison, the artist drew the scenes that she was not allowed to photograph.

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Complex Original

Image via Complex Original

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For reasons you might suspect, the government doesn't allow photography inside Guantanamo Bay, the United States military prison in Cuba. Journalists are sometimes allowed in for press tours, but even they are restricted from photographing areas of the prison. Artist Molly Crabapple found a smart way to circumvent that rule.

Replacing the guards faces with smiley faces, Crabapple used pen and ink to draw what she saw during two visits. "I was really afraid to make my art overtly political," says Crabapple in the video above, published via FastCo. "I felt like if I did political work it would be this preachy lie." Of the press trips, Crabapple says that cameras are allowed in some areas, but "what you're allowed to shoot is so limited, everyone basically gets the same shots." Her drawings go deeper into the world that most people have not and will probably never see with their own eyes. Watch the video, and check out Molly Crabapple's website for more of her work.

[via FastCoExist]

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