Taryn Simon

Taryn Simon
Name	Taryn Simon
Birth date	1975
Birth place	New York City, New York City
Nationality	American
Occupation	Photographer, artist, author
Notable works	A Living Man Declared Dead and Other Chapters I–XVIII, An American Index of the Hidden and Unfamiliar, The Innocents, Paperwork and the Will of Capital
Awards	MacArthur Fellowship, Deutsche Börse Photography Prize shortlist

Taryn Simon Taryn Simon is an American artist and photographer known for large-scale, research-driven projects that map hidden relationships among institutions, individuals, legal mechanisms, and media images. Her work combines documentary photography, archival research, and text to interrogate state power, corporate structures, legal systems, and narratives surrounding identity, war, terrorism, intelligence agency, and public policy. Simon's projects have been exhibited internationally at institutions such as the Museum of Modern Art, the Tate Modern, and the Guggenheim Museum.

Early life and education

Born in New York City in 1975, Simon grew up in a milieu shaped by urban diversity and cultural institutions like the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art. She studied at Brown University and later attended the Yale School of Art, where peers and faculty included artists and critics connected to movements exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles and the Walker Art Center. Her formative years intersected with contemporaries and predecessors from the circles of Richard Avedon, Diane Arbus, and André Kertész while she developed interests in legal archives and state documents housed at repositories such as the Library of Congress and municipal archives in Washington, D.C..

Career and major works

Simon emerged onto the international art scene with methodical projects that juxtapose photography and text. Early recognition followed her series that explored incarceration and legal identity issues linked to institutions like the Supreme Court of the United States and the Department of Justice. Major undertakings include An American Index of the Hidden and Unfamiliar, which catalogued objects and sites connected to agencies such as the Central Intelligence Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the United States Postal Service; The Innocents, examining wrongful convictions involving courts in jurisdictions including Texas and Illinois; and A Living Man Declared Dead and Other Chapters I–XVIII, a global genealogical portrait series involving subjects in countries such as India, China, Israel, and Colombia. Her multi-part project Paperwork and the Will of Capital documented contractual and legal frameworks tied to entities including Consolidated Edison, ExxonMobil, and multinational banks headquartered in London and Frankfurt.

Artistic themes and methodology

Simon’s work interrogates visibility, classification, bureaucratic authority, and the construction of truth through institutions like the United Nations, the International Criminal Court, and national archives. She frequently employs exhaustive research, subpoenas, FOIA requests directed at agencies including the Department of Defense and the National Archives and Records Administration, and collaborations with lawyers and historians associated with universities such as Harvard University and Columbia University. Her methodology pairs frontal, documentary portraiture referencing traditions from practitioners like August Sander and Bernd and Hilla Becher with precise captions and legal documentation reminiscent of catalogs from institutions like the Smithsonian Institution. Recurring themes include migration and citizenship as seen in relation to laws like the Immigration and Nationality Act, state secrecy as contextualized by events such as the Iraq War and the post-9/11 era, and the interplay between visual representation and documentary evidence highlighted in cases before tribunals such as the European Court of Human Rights.

Notable exhibitions and publications

Simon’s exhibitions have been hosted at major venues including the Serpentine Gallery, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Carnegie Museum of Art. Her book-length projects have been published by prominent art presses and displayed in institutions such as the Guggenheim Bilbao and the Palais de Tokyo. Key publications include the monographs A Living Man Declared Dead and Other Chapters I–XVIII, The Innocents, An American Index of the Hidden and Unfamiliar, and Paperwork and the Will of Capital, which have been reviewed in outlets like The New York Times, The Guardian, and Artforum. Retrospectives and group shows have placed her work alongside contemporaries such as Cindy Sherman, Jeff Wall, and Nan Goldin.

Awards and recognition

Simon received a MacArthur Fellowship in recognition of her investigative and photographic practice. She has been shortlisted for awards including the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize and honored with grants from institutions like the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. Her projects have been collected by museums such as the Museum of Modern Art, the Tate, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and her work is frequently cited in scholarship and exhibitions concerning visuality, law, and archives at universities including Oxford University and Yale University.

Personal life and collaborations

Simon has collaborated with legal scholars, curators, journalists, and institutions including the International Center of Photography, the New Museum, and publishing houses connected to the Museum of Modern Art and Steidl. She has worked with curators and critics associated with figures like Hans Ulrich Obrist, Klaus Biesenbach, and Okwui Enwezor, and engaged with photographers, anthropologists, and archivists from institutions such as the Getty Research Institute and the British Library. Simon maintains connections to academic and artistic communities in New York City, London, and Berlin.

Category:American photographers Category:Contemporary artists