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life:

In 2008 and 2009, German photographer Oliver Fluck accompanied a Princeton chess club to the New Jersey State Prison in Trenton, where the students squared off against some of the facility’s inmates. Fluck trained his lens on the encounters, capturing a focused, contemplative side of the prisoners that perhaps few on the outside ever get a chance to see. The project, Fluck told LIFE.com, opened up his perspective, especially when talking to men who challenged his notions of what a criminal would be like. “The world is more than black and white,” he said.

see more — Playing Chess… in Prison