Taryn Simon lives and works in New York. The Innocents has been exhibited in 2003 at PS1 Contemporary Art Center, New York and at Kunstwerke, Berlin. Simon was awarded a John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship in Photography. The Innocents, Simon`s first book, was published in the spring of 2003 by Umbrage Editions and will be an accompanying element of the exhibition at Nikolaj, Copenhagen Contemporary Art Center. Her photography and writing has been featured in numerous publications and broadcasts, including The New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, Frontline, CNN and BBC.
Taryn Simon’s series “The Innocents” is images of people that had been arrested, went to jail, and then years later because of DNA testing they were proven innocent and released. She would then have the subjects return to the scene of the crime that they were accused of being at years ago and pose for her. At issue is the question of photography's function as a credible eyewitness and arbiter of justice. “The primary cause of wrongful conviction is mistaken identification. A victim or eyewitness identifies a suspected perpetrator through law enforcement’s use of photographs and lineups. This procedure relies on the assumption of precise visual memory. But, through exposure to composite sketches, mugshots, Polaroids, and lineups, eyewitness memory can change. In the history of these cases, photography offered the criminal justice system a tool that transformed innocent citizens into criminals. Photographs assisted officers in obtaining eyewitness identifications and aided prosecutors in securing convictions.” The photographs are accompanied by the Innocence Project's case profiles and Simon's interviews, collected during her cross-country journey. While mugshots and photo arrays are used to condemn and imprison innocent people, Simon has turned the camera around to document the victims of misidentification and perverted justice.
Our artwork relates because we are both having people return to an area that they “should” remember. Her subjects may or may not have ever actually been at this area and mine have been there but might not necessarily remember that exact moment that the snapshot was taken at. They are both bringing people back to a certain time.
Website
http://www.tarynsimon.com/
Interview
http://www.interviewmagazine.com/art/taryn-simon/
Gallery
http://cds.aas.duke.edu/exhibits/innocentspast.html
http://www.mocp.org/exhibitions/2005/08/taryn_simon_the.php
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