An Artist Used a Drone to Photograph ICE Detention Centers

Unfortunately, it’s not hard to find information about the disturbing, unhealthy, and inhumane conditions that immigrants face in ICE detention centers, many of which are privately-owned. It is, however, more complicated to find photos of these detention centers. Access to photographers is often not on the table.

David Taylor, an artist and professor at the University of Arizona, thought of an innovative way to get around the facilities’ iron grip on cameras: He decided to use a drone to photograph the ICE detention centers from the sky.

The result was a series of impactful photos of the centers from a perspective that’s normally not available to the public. Gizmodo spoke to Taylor about his photographs, which you can check out in the slides ahead, and asked him what his reaction was when he starting see the first ones coming in.

“That the for-profit prison system is an industrial landscape,” he said.