“When the State is Killing, All of Us Are Killing”

Toshi Kazama is a photographer whose searing photographs of youth on death row in USA and Taiwan bring a level of immediacy to the abolitionist debate, which is often missing. 

The New York-based photographer worked decades gathering the images for “Juveniles of Death Row: A Documentary Exploration” and then toured venues including many college campuses to educate audiences on the truth about the death penalty.

He now tours the world showing his black and white photographs of juveniles on death row and talks about his experiences photographing them. As well, he discusses his experience as a survivor of attempted murder, which resulted in a five-day coma. At the heart of Toshi’s opposition to the death penalty is his belief that it is fundamentally wrong and damaging to society. He says, “When the state kills an inmate, all of us are killing.”

Toshi takes a fierce interest in his subjects, reaching out to them on a personal level and getting to know not only the inmates’ families but the families of their victims, as well as the prison officials.

He describes his subjects as “precious human beings” and hopes that his work will add to the effort to abolish the death penalty. At the very least, he wants his powerful photography to lead viewers to recognise the unacceptable levels of violence that permeate our society.

When Christopher Simmons’ case (“Roper vs Simmons”) went to the US Supreme Court, his photograph contributed to the abolition of the death penalty for juveniles in 2005. Furthermore, Toshi worked with Amnesty International Mongolia for two years, leading to Mongolia accepting the second optional protocol in 2012. In 2016, Mongolia abolished capital punishment. He continues to work and campaign for abolition in many Asian countries including, China, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar, Indonesia, Singapore, Laos. Also, he is advocating for the Philippine and Cambodia not to reinstate capital punishment.

Lecture topics including

During this lecture, he will discuss many facets of the death penalty, and punitive justice in comparison to restorative justice practices, in light of his own experiences.