The Jerome Project (My Loss)

2014

Titus Kaphar created this body of work based on dozens of mugshots of incarcerated men who share the first and last name of his father, Jerome. The resulting series of portraits reflects the disproportionate effect that mass incarceration has on Black people and memorializes the experiences of distance and separation commonly felt by families with loved ones in prison.

Each figure appears before a gold-leaf ground that recalls the Byzantine tradition of icon painting. The thick layers of tar encroach upon the subject, representing the harm and the long-term effects of life under the carceral state.