Escape From Alcatraz contains a series images I captured during my visit to San Francisco’s famous landmark. It’s been a while since I took a trip there and I wanted to visit the @Large by Ai Weiwei exhibit that was happening. Alcatraz is strange because tons of tourist flock to this island where our most dangerous inmates were once kept. Now it attracts people from all over the world to see this prison that remained more or less unchanged. The unique location lends itself to being photographed quite often and so I wanted to make a short film about it myself.
Escape From Alcatraz, San Francisco from Brian Chu on Vimeo.
I wanted to capture Alcatraz how it would looked back when people were still kept there. There are some recent additions and changes made to make it more accessible, but more or less it feels like it did in the 1930’s. It has been said that inmates could often hear people in the city when the wind blew a certain direction. I always wondered if it would make their time there easier or harder being in such a beautiful place, and so close to freedom. Lucky enough for me I didn’t commit any crimes on Alctraz, and I was able to take the boat back to San Francisco.
