Melanie Friend spent four years making a photographic document of the restrictive environments of the UK's Immigration Removal Centres. The images in the Border Country touring exhibition (further information at www.melaniefriend.com) are juxtaposed with a fragmentary soundtrack of the voices of detained asylum seekers and migrants. The book, described as 'moving and deeply topical' by Hotshoe International, includes a 75 minute audio CD of the complete exhibition soundtrack and essays by Mark Durden and Alex Hall. Friend began work on Border Country in 2003 and since then, more than 25,000 individuals per year have been held for some period in immigration detention in the UK. As a visitor she met asylum seekers and migrants in several removal centres and was given special access to record interviews with male detainees in Dover, and female detainees in Yarl's Wood. The publication includes voiced testimonies that evoke the physical and psychological experience of life in detention and provide an astute commentary on the UK's immigration system. Friend has photographed the visits' rooms in eight Immigration Removal Centres including Colnbrook and Harmondsworth (near Heathrow), Tinsley House (near Gatwick), Haslar (near Portsmouth) and Dover. Friend also obtained permission to photograph landscapes: the recreation areas at Lindholme (near Doncaster) complete with outsize chess set and artificial duck pond; the sterile areas at Colnbrook; and the Napoleonic moat which surrounds the removal centre at Dover. Gordon MacDonald, Editor of Photoworks, says 'Border Country is a fascinating view into a hidden world not afforded us by the media. Friend has battled bureaucracy to make a work which is artistically accomplished as well as being politically and emotionally charged.' In his essay for the publication Border Country, Mark Durden, Professor of Photography at Newport School of Art, Media and Design (University of Wales) comments, 'In Border Country, Friend gives us the voices of people without any home or belonging, trapped within an inhumane system they cannot fully understand. The act of listening to those caught waiting, uncertain of their future deportation or asylum breaks the silence and invisibility surrounding these centres and those who are kept inside.' Border Country was selected as one of the ten best works submitted for the European Central Bank Annual Photography Award 2008 Europe competition.

In as new condition with a very slight rub to bottom right corner of the cover.
Comes with audio CD in pocket inside back cover.