The Images

The following galleries are mainly composed of images of Les Corts prison reproduced in the official publications of the Francoist regime about the penitentiary system. Most of the photographs were intended for inclusion in the pages of the Memories of the Patronage for the Redemption of Sentences through Work, published annually, and in the internal circulation weekly Redención. Through these images, the regime endeavoured to present its best face. Thus, they must be read between the lines, in the light of documents and testimonies.

The aim was to depict a prison where female inmates worked diligently or participated in religious celebrations with their children, under the satisfied gaze of the nuns. Work and religion form the two main visual axes: work as opposed to “idleness as the root of all sin,” and charity during the exceptional occasions when the children of inmates not imprisoned alongside their mothers were allowed to spend a few hours inside the prison, three times a year—on the feast days of Our Lady of Mercy, patroness of prisoners, and those of Carmen and Epiphany.

The numerous photographs of inmates receiving visits from their children on these three occasions, overwhelmingly predominant in official publications, primarily reflect the image the regime sought to project. Daily reality, however, was far greyer and more monotonous, far removed from the public eye.