When A Camera Won’t Cut It: Guantanamo Bay And The Power Of Sketchpads

These days, it’s not that difficult for a journalist to make it inside Guantanamo Bay. The Cuban-based Naval base and military prison for largely terrorism suspects is pretty good about allowing access. But once inside, there are precious few rooms and scenes that are open for photographers to shoot. That’s why artist and activist Molly Crabapple says we generally only see the same few images. When Crabapple made a trip to Guantanamo to cover Khalid Sheikh Mohammed’s military commission, she did what she does best and busted out her sketchpad. So while we’re all super busy hoisting our smartphones to capture life’s quotidian joys, sometimes it takes a different artist to capture deeper, more painful truths.