On 27th March 2025, a Swedish journalist for Dagens ETC, Joakim Medin, was arrested on his arrival in Turkey and imprisoned. The charges were ‘insulting the president’ and ‘membership of a terrorist organsation’, relating to his coverage of a protest against Erdogan in Stockholm. He was eventually released on 16th May after receiving a suspended sentence on the insult charge; the terrorism charge is still pending.

I was asked to illustrate an article Joakim wrote about his 51 days in isolation in the notorious Marmara prison. It focuses on a particular day, 24th April, when he was able to make his weekly 10-minute phone call to his wife, who was pregnant with their first child. This was when he learned about the charges facing him, and the date of the trial in a week’s time…

This was a fascinating project for me. I worked closely with Joakim, building up the surroundings of the prison from his memories, as there’s very little photographic imagery of how it looks on the inside. I aimed to be as factually accurate as possible in all the details, but also to capture the sense of claustrophobia and isolation he was feeling.

The illustrations were drawn in pencil, and combined with a painted colour layer