Pratt Center for Continuing and Professional Studies (CCPS) Gallery will present “Courthouse Confessions – In Their Own Words,” a photography exhibition of work by CCPS instructor and longtime photojournalist Steven Hirsch. The exhibition, which is free and open to the public, runs from August 31 – September 29, 2009.
For the past year, Hirsch, an accomplished photographer, has documented the confessional stories of willing participants leaving the Manhattan Criminal Court at 100 Centre Street in Downtown New York through photographs and transcribed interviews. Each of the exhibited “Courthouse Confessions” photographs will be juxtaposed with an uncensored and poignant written account as told by the defendants and transcribed by Hirsch, who removes each of his interview questions so that the transgressions of the accused are presented in an uninterrupted flow.
Hirsch’s work has appeared in Newsweek, Time, US News and World Report, The New York Times, Popular Photography, and People. His photographs have been widely exhibited and are in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art, The International Polaroid Collection, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Israel Museum, Library of Congress, and the New Orleans Museum of Art. Hirsch received New York Foundation for the Arts grants in 1982 and 1994 and has taught at the International Center of Photography; The New School, Parsons School of Design; and the School of Visual Arts. Since 2005, he has taught photography at Pratt Institute CCPS, which offers a wide variety of educational opportunities outside of Pratt’s traditional degree programs. Certificate programs include computer graphics, photography and digital imaging, project management, and fine and decorative art appraisal.
For more information on CCPS and its gallery, please visit http://prostudies.pratt.edu/index.html. To view works by Hirsch and read the accompanying transcribed confessions, please visit Courthouse Confessions at http://courthouseconfessions.blogspot.com/.