Symptomatically titled There’s a shite stunk in the air… Dad’s oot oan bail!, Edgar Martins new exhibition is a comprehensive and original take on his award-winning literary and artistic project What Photography & Incarceration have in Common with an Empty Vase, a multifaceted body of work developed from a collaboration with inmates in the Midlands, UK, as well as their families and a myriad of other local organisations and individuals. 

Using the social context of incarceration as a starting point, Martins explores the philosophical concept of absence, and addresses a broader consideration of the status of the photograph when questions of visibility, ethics, aesthetics, ontology and documentation intersect. 

By giving a voice to inmates and their families and addressing prison as a set of social relations rather than a mere physical space, Martins’ work proposes to rethink and counter the sort of imagery normally associated with incarceration.