Wall as Horizon reflects on the inequalities in the Swiss prison system, questioning the imprisonment of short-term sentences, which account for 75% of all detentions. Often pecuniary, these penalties are converted into imprisonment when unpaid. As a result, most people serving these sentences face financial precarity, often coupled with a lack of residency status.

A, D, G, L, M, N, T and Z, detained at the prison in La Chaux-de-Fonds, were invited to co-author the project through a series of pinhole cameras and cyanotypes, creating a space to express and document their daily lives inside the walls. The second part, more documentary, explores administrative records and prison architecture and transposes the co-authors’ testimonies onto concrete, echoing prison graffiti and confronting us with the severity and usefulness of the sentences.

Created as part of the Neuchâtel Photographic Survey 2024, it was published by Scheidegger & Spiess and exhibited at the Museum of Fine Arts, Le Locle.