Women’s Prison Association, WPA, supports formerly incarcerated women. WPA is at the forefront of groundbreaking advocacy efforts and strategies addressing challenges that led to these women’s arrest. The Accompagnateur Workshop supports these women to build identity, self-awareness, and communication skills to become advocates for criminal justice reform post-incarceration. The women are asked to think of titles and photos for chapters in their life stories as well as for their dreams and goals five years in the future.

The women come to see that the circumstances of their past do not need to define their future.

“As long as I live in a world where activist groups are necessary to enlighten society that Black and brown lives matter, I will be on the front lines and in our political systems orchestrating and influencing policies to enact long-fought and overdue changes.”

—Uwimana Aisha Radellant

Cecile, a student of Saskia's workshop with Women's Prison Association

I am honored to thank Saskia Keeley. Saskia runs photography workshops in which participants unpack decades of fear and bias through the simple acts of looking and listening. 

We were fortunate to welcome Saskia to WLMP. She loaned each one of us a beautiful digital camera, walked us through the basics of photography, and then had us dive deeply into our life stories by asking: “If you wrote a book about your life, what would the title be? What would each chapter entail?”. And, most importantly, “what images would you pair with each one?”.

We spent a whole week with our cameras, exploring our homes, communities, and families through a new and literal lens. At the end of the week, we brought our photos to Saskia.

Saskia, thank you for your patience, your trust, and your encouragement to be creative, see our worlds in a new way, and always find the light! You will always have a place in the WLMP community.

Uwimana Aisha Radellant, a student of Saskia's workshop with Women's Prison Association

We live in a complex world, filled with an abundance of beauty. I was blessed to capture some of its awesome magnificence when given a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to work with an amazing photographer and equally amazing person by the name of Saskia Keeley.

Saskia shared her expertise, professional equipment, assistant, and more importantly her heart with complete strangers. Saskia gave us the opportunity to tell our story, through the lens of the cameras she entrusted to us. In doing so she gave us the chance to explore and capture our world through the medium of photography.

Saskia’s photography workshop has been one of the most beautiful experiences of my life. If fortune smiles on you and you are given the chance to work with Saskia, don’t think twice, just do it! It’s an experience you will treasure for life.

Diana McHugh, Director of Communications for the Women's Prison Association

Saskia’s workshop was the perfect addition to WPA’s Women’s Leadership & Media Project. Saskia was a thoughtful planner who kept things simple for us while also honoring our adherence to trauma-informed and gender-responsive practices. She incorporated these practices into her workshop which felt tailored to our group at every step.

She was trustworthy, flexible, and available to both our staff and clients throughout the entire process. The women in the class were drawn to her sincerity and I to her professionalism.

The workshop was a beautiful dive into storytelling via photography. Saskia’s careful and patient instruction made it easy for the women to learn the cameras, engage in storytelling, and trust themselves to capture their stories through a new and creative medium.

Though our class didn’t require internal conflict resolution, the women still stretched, grew, and bonded as a group, which was, perhaps, the most meaningful outcome of the workshop – even more so than the incredible photographs the women produced!