On my first day at HMP Bullingdon, a B-Cat remand men’s prison, I put a piece of chip paper up in my window. I took it down 14 months later, stained by the sun to reveal the prison bars. This is as close to a photograph as is possible in carceral environments.

These bars speak volumes about our justice system; one built on retribution over rehabilitation, punishment over therapy. It is a system that deepens trauma rather than healing it. These bars are a choice. In countries that prioritise rehabilitation, prisons are designed with horizontal bars, allowing those inside to see the world beyond, a set of horizon lines softened into sky, trees, and grass. But in the UK, the bars stand vertical, a stark and unyielding reminder of confinement, even when looking outside.

Photographed by Eric Tschlernow at NOGallery Berlin, and Alicja Kielan for Galerie Op Enheim Wrocław