Anthony Mackie for Variety

William Widmer March 5, 2021

Took a walk through Tremé with actor Anthony Mackie for a Variety cover feature.

NEW ORLEANS, LA - Feb. 19, 2021 - Actor Anthony Mackie photographed in the Tremé District of New Orleans.

Mass Incarceration During the Pandemic for The New Yorker

William Widmer July 16, 2020

New Orleans, LA - April 6, 2020 - The parking lot of the old courthouse jail, which now sits empty one block from a new $145 million complex opened in 2015, sits empty in the late afternoon sun.

New Orleans, LA - April 6, 2020 - The New Orleans Justice Center, a $145 million complex opened in 2015, looms over residential buildings in the surrounding Mid-City neighborhood.

Decarceration During Coronavirus Pandemic

New Orleans, LA - April 6, 2020 - The old Orleans Parish Prison building, which sits empty one block from a new $145 million complex opened in 2015, still looms over the surrounding residential Mid-City neighborhood.

“In late March, Governor John Bel Edwards announced that Louisiana had the fastest-growing coronavirus infection rate in the world. According to state reports at the end of last year, Louisiana also had the highest incarceration rate in the country. The pandemic posed an immediate threat in the state’s jails, where cells are crowded and poorly sanitized, and people frequently cycle in and out of custody. Since 2013, the main jail in Orleans Parish has been under a consent decree for what the Department of Justice called “dangerous and unacceptable” conditions, including “inadequate medical care.” Prisons, too, present a contagion risk; they have less rapid turnover than jails, but staff come and go, and large populations and underfunded health services make outbreaks hard to contain.”

Community groups have pointed out the social costs of the prison system for decades. Now the pandemic has exposed its public-health risks.

The New Yorker: Will the Coronavirus Make Us Rethink Mass Incarceration?

"‘Something Is Going to Explode’: When Coronavirus Strikes a Prison" for The New York Times Magazine

William Widmer April 24, 2020

Oakdale, LA - April 13, 2020 - As of April 10, the Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) in Oakdale counted a sixth inmate who died from COVID-19. The prison currently houses 971 male offenders. There are thirty-nine inmates of FCI I Oakdale that a

Oakdale, LA - April 10, 2020 - As of April 10, the Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) in Oakdale counted a sixth inmate who died from COVID-19. The prison currently houses 971 male offenders. There are thirty-nine inmates of FCI I Oakdale that a

Oakdale, LA - April 13, 2020 - Anita Kadrovich is an employee at FCI Oakdale.As of April 10, the Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) in Oakdale counted a sixth inmate who died from COVID-19. The prison currently houses 971 male offenders. There a

In Oakdale, Louisiana, the Federal Correctional Complex houses some 2,000 inmates and employs close to 500 staff members in two low-security prisons. The last time I worked there was during the government shutdown last year, when many of the prison staff saw their paychecks vanish overnight — it’s the unfortunate lifeblood for a town of fewer than 8,000 people. Now, the prisons at Oakdale are experiencing an alarming coronavirus outbreak.

"By the third week of April, seven Oakdale inmates had died. At least 100 inmates and staff members had been infected, with more than 20 hospitalized, as confusion, fear and anger gripped the interconnected community of inmates, officials, workers, family members and loved ones."

I photographed a few of the people - the mayor, the union president, and a prison employee - that writer Janet Reitman interviewed for a terrifying oral history of the first fatal outbreak of COVID-19 in the federal prison system, which published in The New York Times Magazine last week.

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‘Something Is Going to Explode’: When Coronavirus Strikes a Prison

An oral history of the first fatal outbreak in the federal prison system, in Oakdale, La.

Essential Workers During the Coronavirus Pandemic for The Washington Post

William Widmer April 6, 2020

New Orleans, LA - March 24, 2020 - Isaac Brooks works with fellow employees to load residential trash into the back of a Metro Services Group garbage truck. The company has begun furnishing extra protective equipment to their employees in an effort

New Orleans, LA - March 24, 2020 - Isaac Brooks (51) prepares for the early morning garbage collection shifts at Metro Service Group, one of three companies that manage residential trash collection in the city of New Orleans. Brooks has worked in th

New Orleans, LA - March 24, 2020 - Isaac Brooks (51) hands a stack of clean cotton handkerchiefs up to a truck driver in the pre-dawn hours at Metro Service Group, one of three companies that manage residential trash collection in the city of New Or

New Orleans, LA - March 24, 2020 - Garbage collectors empty residential garbage cans into the back of a Metro Service Group truck in the 7th Ward of New Orleans. The company has begun furnishing extra rubber gloves, facemasks, and handkerchiefs to

New Orleans, LA - March 24, 2020 - Isaac Brooks (51) pulls on a new pair of rubber gloves after spraying his steering wheel down with disinfectant. Brooks is a supervisor at Metro Service Group, one of three companies that manage residential trash c

New Orleans, LA - March 24, 2020 - Bryan Bowman empties residential garbage cans into the back of a Metro Service Group truck in the 7th Ward of New Orleans. His employer has begun furnishing extra rubber gloves, facemasks, and handkerchiefs to thei

New Orleans, LA - March 24, 2020 - Bryan Bowman (L) and Landrius Cooley empty residential garbage cans into the back of a Metro Service Group truck in the 7th Ward of New Orleans. His employer has begun furnishing extra rubber gloves, facemasks, and

New Orleans, LA - March 24, 2020 - Bryan Bowman wipes sweat from his brown while collecting residential trash in the 7th Ward of New Orleans. His employer, Metro Service Group, has begun furnishing extra rubber gloves, facemasks, and handkerchiefs t

I spent a day with New Orleans sanitation workers as they collected garbage during the coronavirus shutdown for a Washington Post feature on essential workers around the globe:

“Working in the Wake of Coronavirus”

Wendell Pierce for Esquire UK

William Widmer April 12, 2019

I photographed actor Wendell Pierce at home in the Pontchartain Park neighborhood of New Orleans for a feature in Esquire UK. Pierce stars in a stage production of Waiting for Godot this fall in London.