DEVIL’S ISLAND 1983
Devil’s Island is one of a group of islands in French Guiana in the Atlantic Ocean the Ils du Salut, Ile Royale, St Joseph and Ile de Diable. For 100 years from 1852 to 1953, it was one of the most notorious penal settlements, with a death rate of 75% only a few survived their sentences.
The high mortality rate was due to to the brutal system, tropical climate, hunger and disease. French political prisoners were also sentenced to the penal colony, the most famous being the wrongly convicted Captain Alfred Deyfus accused of spying for Germany. It exposed the anti-semitic attitudes and corruption of 20th-century France. There were only a few escapes from the penal colony, the most famous being Henri Charriere who wrote the best selling book, ‘Papillon’. When these photos were taken the colony was still much as it was when the last prisoners left in 1953.
