Experiments and Disorders presents Looking Inside: Women with Life Sentences

An evening with Sara Bennett and two of the women she’s photographed who spent decades in New York State Prisons.

SARA BENNETT, a 2024 Guggenheim fellow, is a former public defender who primarily photographs women with life sentences, both inside and outside prison, as a way to draw attention to the problems of mass incarceration. Her work has been widely exhibited in museums and galleries, including group shows at  Blanton Museum of Art’s Day Jobs, MoMA PS1’s Marking Time: Art in the Age of Mass Incarceration and the Museum of the City of New York’s New York Now: Home, and at solo shows including the Blue Sky Gallery in Portland, Oregon, Photoville in Brooklyn, New York, and Rotterdam Photo 2023. Her work is in the collection of, among others, the John Hays Library at Brown University, the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University, and the Museum of the City of New York, and has been featured in such publications as The Guardian, The New York Times, The New Yorker Photo Booth, and Variety & Rolling Stone’s American (In)Justice. She is a recipient of the 2026 Baxter Mid-Career Artist Initiative and the 2023 Emerging Laureate of the International Women in Photo Association. Her monograph, Looking Inside: Women with Life Sentences, has just been published (Kehrer Verlag 2026). She is also the co-author of The Case Against Homework: How Homework is Hurting Our Children and What We Can Do About It (Crown: 2006).

Leah (she/her) is a fierce advocate, compassionate leader, and devoted mother, daughter, and sister who has dedicated over twenty years to uplifting communities disproportionately harmed by the criminal legal system. A resilient survivor of both domestic and state violence, Leah transforms her experience into a powerful force for education, community empowerment, and grassroots organizing within Black and Brown communities. Her unwavering commitment brings not only practical support but also a profound sense of hope and solidarity to those navigating the devastating impacts of incarceration. With every step, Leah embodies the spirit of resistance, healing, and transformative justice.She is a community liaison at Women Building Up.

After spending 34.5 years in prison for a domestic violence homicide, Karen came to New York City where she first worked as a paralegal in the office of a criminal defense attorney and now works for the New York State Division of Human Rights. During her incarceration she helped to formulate and begin the Family Violence Program, the first of its kind, which became a national model in the NYS carceral system. A writer and artist, Karen was selected for the Grand Slam Championship of The Moth in 2018, had an exhibition at WOW Cafe and the Interchurch Center, and currently can be found every weekend on Governor’s Island as a docent and art exhibitor at Escaping Time.