We used the power of missed memories to visualize time lost in prison. We worked with a past exoneree, Ron Dalton, who bravely stepped forward and agreed to share his story and put his life on display. We created “Exposing Innocence”, an art installation that used Ron’s family photos, photos he was absent from during his time in prison. Each photo represented a moment Ron Dalton missed, camping trips he couldn’t go on, sports games he couldn’t attend, and his own children’s birthdays he couldn’t celebrate.

The goal was to create conversation about wrongful conviction, a real issue that steals moments from innocent people’s lives. We needed Canadians to experience the issue first hand, and to create a newsworthy execution that could get the government’s attention, too.

We designed a 10’ x 14’ portrait of wrongful conviction. “Exposing Innocence” worked like an optical illusion, showing Ron’s portrait before he went into prison on one side, and after coming out of prison on the other.

The illusion was accomplished by carefully lining up individually printed photo plates to each act as a pixel in a 100-pixel image. Each of the 10” x 10” photo plate had a printed image from Ron’s personal photo album on both sides, photos that Ron Dalton himself was missing from due to his wrongful conviction.

The photo plates each had two eye hooks and two custom length wires. The length of the wire was carefully calculated to ensure the correct alignment of the final image at an optimal 20’ viewing distance, marked by decals on the floor on both sides of the installation.

“Exposing Innocence” garnered national attention and inspired government action. By bringing Ron’s story to life, we immersed people in an engaging and memorable experience of time lost due to wrongful conviction.

Canadians donated to Innocence Canada, but they must have been talking about it too, because the Canadian government showed interest for the first time ever. A few weeks after the installation, the government of Ontario changed its policy to help Innocence Canada keep its doors open.

• Overall media impressions were 76 million

• Innocence Canada saw a 185% increase in charitable fundraising donations

• Most importantly, we finally got the attention of the government of Ontario, who agreed to fund Innocence Canada over the next 3 years