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Death Chamber: Angola, Louisiana State Penitentiary (largest prison in the United States), 2005
A new book by photographer Richard Ross: Architecture of Authority, examines the way institutional buildings exert power over people. Ross managed to gain impressive access to all kinds of secretive or high-security buildings, from Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, to the supermax high-security Pelican Bay prison in California. Ross credits his unprecedented access to a combination of persistence and sincere curiosity. “Many of these people want to show you these places once they know that you’re interested in their world,” he says.

To question the pervasiveness of intimidating, “disgusting” architecture, the images in Ross’ book are both striking and inviting. Ross intentionally makes the photos of oppressive structures look seductive. “You can convince people a lot easier by whispering in their ear rather than hitting them over the head,” says Ross.

Following is a selection from the book along with Ross’s commentary. Ross has an exhibition at the Aperture Gallery in New York which is now open to the public.

Left: Pictured is the prison’s lethal injection chamber. “Ninety percent of inmates who enter Angola [Louisiana State Penitentiary], never leave,” Ross says. Inmates work on the prison farm and are not allowed to eat the cows they raise because the quality of the meat is too high. Meals at Angola can cost as little as 17 cents per person since so much of the food is grown on site. Twice a year, inmates enjoy a rodeo on the prison grounds with barbecues and bull riding. (Courtesy Richard Ross)
—————————————————————An indoor exercise yard at Pelican Bay State Prison, California (above)

“Situations evolve without anybody noticing,” Ross says. “Civil liberties are taken away piecemeal but they’re rarely given back. So it starts with kids giving up some of their independence to sit on the circle at Montessori school, and that’s socialization, or learning to live within a group, but at some point it gets a lot rougher than that.” (Courtesy Richard Ross)
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Interview room, Oakland Police Department, 2004
There is often a third party present in interrogations, Ross says, who sits behind the interrogator. This adds an ominous element of uncertainty. The prisoner is left to wonder whether this person has the ability to intervene, and if so, whether it would be on his behalf or not:

“It’s almost as if they act like an omnipotent presence. The silent voice. It’s almost Buddhist. They don’t say anything. The person being interrogated could look over at that person and wonder if this person is going to tip the scales. Are they going to intercede at any point? At what point do they intercede? At what point do they stop being a neutral, silent observer? Their role is always confused there. The uncertainty assists in the interrogation process.” (Courtesy Richard Ross)
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Interview room, Abu Ghraib prison, Iraq
In photographing military and law enforcement buildings, Ross never directly requests to photograph the most sensitive areas.  “When I go to a Secret Service interview room, I would never say to them, ‘Could I see your interrogation room?’ They would bristle and I wouldn’t get in,” he explains.
In the case of Abu Ghraib prison, the notorious scene of torture and abuse of prisoners, this was particularly important:

“If you look at a continuum of a conversation, an interview, interrogation and torture, where’s that line?” Ross asks. “By the time prisoners are in Abu Ghraib, that’s an interrogation room. They’re not fucking around and they’re not standing on ceremony.” (Courtesy Richard Ross)
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NYPD 70th Precinct, Brooklyn, New York City
Ross’ father was a New York City police officer at this precinct. “I grew up there,” Ross says. Though he died 20 years ago, Ross says his father would be amused that he is able to make a living by photographing these institutions. (Courtesy Richard Ross)
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Palacio de La Cumberri, Mexico City, 2004
Though the cells in this prison have been removed, it is a classic example of a panopticon, where prisoners are controlled by the actual or perceived gaze of guards at a central position. One of the most efficient architectures of authority, the simple design allows many people to be controlled by very few. (Courtesy Richard Ross) 
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Segregation cells, Camp Remembrance, Abu Ghraib prison, Iraq
For Ross, this is the signature photo of the project. Shot in August 2005 in almost 120-degree heat, within a window of five minutes, the photo was almost prohibited by the officers on-site. (Courtesy Richard Ross)
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Women’s section within the Khaled Ibn Al-Walid Mosque, Homs, Syria
The curtain in this photo segregates the women from the men in a small corner of the mosque. Ross says he wanted to give an idea of the way women are weighted or valued in these buildings. (Courtesy Richard Ross)
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Central London Mosque
“These mosques are the architecture of our world. They’re really gorgeous,” Ross says. “In any of the mosques there’s never any image of anything figurative. There’s no idol worshipping in a mosque.” (Courtesy Richard Ross)
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Constitutional Convention, Baghdad, Iraq
“I was in there photographing that room. It was empty and then a kid, probably in his early twenties who is Arabic, Iraqi, comes in and says, ‘Are you a photographer?’ We need someone to help us document the birth of the Iraqi constitution,” Ross says. 
“I ended up going with them for several days photographing sheiks, the president, Muqtada al-Sadr, al-Maliki, with real flexibility of going from one side of the yellow tape to the other,” Ross says.

“They were really cool about that. They were great people. I would be having lunch with the oil minister and he would be saying things like ‘Thank you for liberating our people,’ and I said, ‘Don’t thank me, I had nothing to do with it, and I would’ve voted against it.’” (Courtesy Richard Ross)

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