French Guiana

Guiana is a region on South America's northeastern coast, home to many Indigenous peoples and shaped by European colonisation. The French part also became notorious for its penal settlements.

Historical images show another side of Guiana: a Palikur woman with chin tattoos, painted bodies and elaborate feather ornaments. Each people had its own forms of dress and decoration. These images sit alongside scenes from the colonial prison world, two very different histories within the same region.

The Kourou settlement expedition of 1763 ended in disaster as disease, food shortages and poor shelter killed many colonists. Nearly a century later, France established its penal colony, including prisons on the Îles du Salut.

Devil's Island became especially famous, but it was only one part of a larger system of camps, forced labour and punishment. Prisoners' clothing and personal appearance reflected lives controlled by the authorities. Escape could mean another struggle for survival at sea or in the forest.

Papillon brought that history to a worldwide audience in 1973, starring Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman. Based on Henri Charrière's disputed account, it tells a dramatic story of imprisonment and escape, rather than the whole history of Guiana and its peoples.