Marie Tihon

PRISON « A LA CARTE »

The San Diego Women’s Prison is located in the historic heart of Cartagena, a tourist town in northern Colombia. In this overcrowded prison where violence reigns, the Interno restaurant opened to the public in December 2016. The San Diego Women’s Prison is a pioneer in rehabilitation and improvement of detention conditions. In addition to the unique experience of eating in prison gourmet dishes served by inmates, it primarily allows the prisoners of San Diego to benefit from ”segundas oportunidades” (second chances). The restaurant was created by the Accion Interna Foundation headed by Johana Bahamon. This famous Colombian actress wanted to give prisoners back some self-esteem. ”Everything has changed since Interno, before we were not doing anything, and now we can do something of our hands and prove to the rest of the society that we are capable of it. We feel useful”, say the inmates who received workshops by local starred chefs to teach them cooking and service skills. Thirty women work in the restaurant, which allows them to reduce their prison sentence while receiving a salary. The rest of the profits from the restaurant serve to improve the quality of life of the 180 inmates.

Marie Tihon

Marie Tihon is a freelance Belgian photojournalist based in Istanbul. She was born in 1992 and graduated in 2015 from the university IHECS, where she studied five years of journalism. She believes in the capacity of a camera to facilitate contacts between people and to testify unheard stories. Marie mainly documents the daily life of women. Through her reports, she focuses on resilience, migration, and human rights. Above all, her aim is to highlight change makers. She won the jury prize and public prize of the Mentor Award in 2016 for her work « Téhéran : les visages de l’indépendance » at the festival Visa Pour l’Image. Her work has been published in the Courier International, AlJazeera, Femmes ici et ailleurs, Ebdo, Orient XXI, 24h01, Les Jours, Die Weltwoche, 6 Mois, L’Orient-Le Jour and The Daily Star. She is represented by the Studio Hans Lucas.