The Verdict: The Christina Boyer Case
Georgia, USA. On Tuesday, April 14, 1992, 22-year-old Christina Boyer leaves the trailer where she’s been staying with her new boyfriend, David. She drives the short distance to her work leaving her three-year-old daughter Amber with him. When she returns that evening she finds Amber covered in bruises. Dying. What happened?
The photographs in ‘Imagination’ are Jan Banning’s photographic interpretations of the Christina Boyer case, created during the course of his investigations. Some are documentary, because – however subjectively photographed – they ‘depict’ an existing reality. Others are visual constructs.
Images from the family album of Christina Boyer.
Newspaper publication about the Christina Boyer case. Article titled ‘Mother, boyfriend charged in girl’s death’.
‘Associations’ presents combinations of Jan Banning’s documentary photographs of the American South accompanied by texts from Christina. Banning sent her photographs of her surroundings, invisible to her through the prison walls. If these evoked an emotional response in her, she wrote it down. This provides us with insights into her inner world, showing how life imprisonment influences her perception of the visual world.