![](https://www.karunavirus.org/pics/story/2020/2830/871x497.jpg)
In early 2020, a letter sent from the Minnesota Correctional Facility in Rush City arrived at photographer Alec Soth's studio in St. Paul. Christopher Fausto Cabrera, a self-taught artist and inmate at the facility, wrote to Soth in hopes of forging a connection with him. The following is an excerpt from one of his letters, as reported by CNN: "Please forgive the audacity of this letter. I reach out in great admiration and respect," wrote Cabrera. "By no way am I absolved of my past -- but I seek to pay something forward through my art and writing...." Since last January, the two men have exchanged letters, emails and phone calls in the midst the pandemic, Black Lives Matter protests and growing political unrest. Some of their conversations have been published in a book titled a collaborative project born of their friendship.
More: