Taryn Simon is a young American photographer best known for documenting forbidding or otherwise inaccessible locations, subjects and topics. Her photographs capture themes generally caught somewhere between the purposefully unknown, the inherently unapproachable, or the taboo aspects of life not normally seen.
With her latest project, “An American Index of the Hidden and Unfamiliar”, Taryn continues along these lines by documenting diverse aspects of American life and culture that typically remain unknown or are simply off limits to the general public. The fact that though unknown or off limits, everything documented in this series was also legal, which also creates a powerful commentary about each of the subjects being captured.
Taryn approaches her subjects with the boldness of a documentarian and helps contextualize them with her talents as an artist. Her photographs generally employ dramatic lighting that creates a mood that’s both beautiful and poignant.
I was surprised to hear that Taryn was recently commissioned by Nike to photograph the 2008 men’s Olympic basketball team. What’s really interesting about this is how it relates back to her last project of capturing glimpses of subjects and places few others have, as well as the commentary Nike is making by commissioning her for this shot.
There’s a lot unsaid that can be read into Taryn’s photograph of the men’s Olympic basketball team, as well as Nike’s decision to have her produce it, but I’ll leave it at that. Everything else aside, her photographs are amazing!
(left to right): Coach Krzyzewski; Dwight Howard; Chris Bosh; Tayshaun Prince; Carlos Boozer; LeBron James; Carmelo Anthony; Kobe Bryant; Michael Redd; Jason Kidd; Dwyane Wade; Deron Williams and Chris Paul. Photographed in Las Vegas, Nevada, on June 28th, 2008.
Playboy, Braille Edition
Playboy Enterprises, Inc., New York, NY
The National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS), a division of the U.S. Library of Congress, provides a free national library program of Braille and recorded materials for blind and physically handicapped persons. Magazines included in the NLS’s programs are selected on the basis of demonstrated reader interest. This includes the publishing and distribution of a Braille edition of Playboy. Approximately 10 million American adults read Playboy every month, with 3 million obtaining it through paid circulation. It has included articles by writers such as Norman Mailer, Vladimir Nabokov, Philip Roth, Joyce Carol Oates, and Kurt Vonnegut and conducted interviews with Salvador Dali, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Malcolm X.
White Tiger (Kenny), Selective Inbreeding
Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge and Foundation, Eureka Springs, AK
In the United States, all living white tigers are the result of selective inbreeding to artificially create the genetic conditions that lead to white fur, ice-blue eyes and a pink nose. Kenny was born to a breeder in Bentonville, Arkansas on February 3, 1999. As a result of inbreeding, Kenny is mentally retarded and has significant physical limitations. Due to his deep-set nose, he has difficulty breathing and closing his jaw, his teeth are severely malformed and he limps from abnormal bone structure in his forearms. The three other tigers in Kenny’s litter are not considered to be quality white tigers as they are yellow coated, cross-eyed, and knock-kneed.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Contraband Room
John F. Kennedy International Airport, Queens, NY
African cane rats infested with maggots, African yams (dioscorea), Andean potatoes, Bangladeshi cucurbit plants, bush meat, cherimoya fruit, curry leaves (murraya), dried orange peels, fresh eggs, giant African snail, impala skull cap, jackfruit seeds, June plum, kola nuts, mango, okra, passion fruit, pig nose, pig mouths, pork, raw poultry (chicken), South American pig head, South American tree tomatoes, South Asian lime infected with citrus canker, sugar cane (poaceae), uncooked meats, unidentified sub-tropical plant in soil.
All items in the photograph were seized from the baggage of passengers arriving in the U.S. at JFK Terminal 4 from abroad over a 48-hour period. All seized items are identified, dissected, and then either ground up or incinerated. JFK processes more international passengers than any other airport in the United States.
The Central Intelligence Agency, Art
CIA Original Headquarters Building, Langley, VA
The Fine Arts Commission of the CIA is responsible for acquiring art to display in the Agency’s buildings. Among the commission’s curated art are two pieces (pictured) by Thomas Downing, on long-term loan from the Vincent Melzac collection. Downing was a member of the Washington Color School, a group of post World War II painters whose influence helped to establish the city as a center for arts and culture. Vincent Melzac was a private collector of abstract art and the Administrative Director of the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.’s, premiere art museum.
Since the founding of the CIA in 1947, the Agency has participated in both covert and public cultural diplomacy efforts throughout the world. It is speculated that some of the CIA’s involvement in the arts was designed to counter Soviet Communism by helping to popularize what it considered pro-American thought and aesthetic sensibilities. Such involvement has raised historical questions about certain art forms or styles that may have elicited the interest of the Agency, including abstract expressionism.
Alhurra TV, Broadcast Studio
Springfield, VA
Anchor Mona Atari at the Alhurra news desk. Alhurra is a U.S. government-sponsored, Arabic-language television network devoted primarily to news and information. Established in Feb. 2004, the network broadcasts 24-hour, commercial-free satellite programming to an audience of 21 million weekly viewers in 22 Arab countries. In April 2004, a second, Iraq-focused channel, Alhurra Iraq, was launched.
Section 501 of the U.S. Information and Education Exchange Act, passed by Congress in 1948, authorizes the U.S. government to disseminate information abroad about the U.S. and its policies. Section 501 also prohibits domestic dissemination of that same information. It is therefore illegal to broadcast Alhurra domestically. Alhurra is Arabic for “the free one.”
www.tarynsimon.com
NY Times Feature
The Morning News Feature
Posted on July 02, 2008 at 10:27 AM | Comment (4 comments)
