Opening in Washington D.C.’s National Building Museum this Saturday is Richard Ross’s exhibition, The Architecture of Authority. With this body of work, American photographer Richard Ross presents unsettling pictures of architectural spaces that each exert a kind of power over the individual. From a Montessori preschool to churches and mosques, to an interrogation room at Guantánamo and segregation cells at Abu Ghraib, Ross’s photographs reflect the state of our post 9/11 world—one in which he believes the public has become accustomed to the abuse of power, erosion of individual liberty, illegitimate authority, and constant surveillance.

In this video, Richard Ross highlights the physical relationship between the viewer and his images. Ross also gives insight into his new project, Suitable Placement: Juvenile Justice in America.

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