Tired of hearing complaints that prison was a luxury resort for criminals, Bermudian photographer Edward Swan Jr. (EJ) decided to find out for himself.

And as a result on Thursday, the 22-year-old will showcase work from a photographic documentary he did on Bermuda's prisons called 'The Curious Conception'.

"I decided to do this because I heard people saying how prison is really a place with good food," said Mr. Swan. "People said the Government was wasting its money spending $85,000 a year on each prisoner."

Mr. Swan decided to use the medium of photography to ferret out the truth.

To get into the prisons he had to first untangle a mass of red tape. He required permission from the Ministry of Labour, Home Affairs and Housing and also the Police Commissioner.

Part of the permission process involved making a presentation to the various officials involved.

"They loved the idea because I wasn't shooting digitally," he said. "I was shooting black and white and developing everything by hand. They liked the fact that I was coming from a raw perspective."

Prisoners signed consent forms to be in the photographs.

Generally, Mr. Swan took random shots of the prisoners at different angles to avoid showing their faces.

He said he wasn't nervous the first time he went into the prisons.

"I am a person who believes in God," he said. "I prayed before I went in. I said 'God, give me the spirit of Daniel'. When Daniel went into the lion's den, he was afraid, but once he went in he asked God to be with him and protect him."

Mr. Swan is deeply involved in The First Church of God on North Shore.

He said going into the prisons gave him real experience with how prison actually felt.

"I felt the prisoners' burden on me," he said. "For me to do a good documentary, I have to feel what is going on.

"Every photo in the exhibition was a reflection of how I felt, how the prisoners felt and how the officers felt."

The truth, he found, was that Bermuda's prisons are definitely not luxury resorts.

"I learned that you have to pay for your crime when you go into the prison," he said. "I think $85,000 is a bit extreme, but it is vital for their punishment.

"I talked to a few 'lifers' and people who were in for murder," he said. "It was an overwhelming experience, to hear that they killed this person.

"I wondered what type of anger or rage would make someone kill another person."

Visiting the prisons really brought home to him the impact that illegal drug use has on the community.

"What surprised me was the amount of crimes related to drugs," he said. "Most of the crimes in there were drug related.

"I was so surprised and shocked. No one really thinks that Bermuda has that bad a drug problem."

He found this was true even for the women in the Co-ed Facility in St. George's.

"Even some of their crimes were related to drugs," he said. "A lot of them were in there for drug possession or drug importation."

To develop the photographs, Mr. Swan had to go to New York City.

"I'd like to see a darkroom in Bermuda, so that you, me and everyone else could contribute," he said. "I had to go to New York to print and develop. I did 16 by 20s and 30 by 40 images."

After developing his photos the pictures had to be passed through the Department of Corrections once more.

"I had a presentation with the [Department of Corrections], he said. "They loved the film noire perspective."

Mr. Swan spent a good part of his life in the United States but "came back to visit often".

He attended Watkins College of Art and Design in Nashville, Tennessee, where he studied filmmaking but had to leave early due to lack of funds.

He is currently working at the Phoenix Store and hopes to return to university next semester.

"I would like to be a documentary photographer, maybe working for a large magazine or newspaper in the United States," he said.

Mr. Swan is interested in themes like world poverty and hunger. He would also like to photograph prisons in other countries.

"I want to put a feeling and a real meaning to photography," he said. "I am not saying that fashion photography and other types of photography isn't meaningful, but I feel that photography is another channel of understanding life."

Mr. Swan's documentary project was sponsored by the Ministry of Labour, Home Affairs and Housing, The Department of Corrections, Gosling's, John Barritt & Son Ltd. and the Bermuda Arts Council.

He also had special assistance from The Chewstick Foundation and CMP Studios.

"Chewstick sponsored me because of their dedication to the prisons as well," he said. "They are also teaching out there.

"They help mentor the kids at the Co-ed Facility. I think that is a really good thing to do, helping the kids adjust back to society.

"Chewstick lets them know that what they did is something that society doesn't agree with, but you can come back to society and change how you act."

The exhibition will be held on Thursday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on the second floor of the Clocktower Mall, in Dockyard.

A second viewing of Mr. Swan's exhibit will be held between 6.30 p.m. and 8 p.m., also on December 10, for Government and Department of Corrections officials.