On Monday May 1st, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, opened a show of the new work of Taryn Simon. This body of work, produced over a four year period (2008-2011) is titled, “A Living Man Declared Dead and other Chapters I-XVIII”. On display at MOMA are nine of the eighteen chapters. The work is the product of researching and photographing portraits of bloodlines of such diverse subjects as research rabbits in Australia, a group of related men in India declared dead so other relatives could inherit their land, the descendants of one of Hitler’s closest confidants, and in the book of the same name, but not in the show, the family of the body double of Saddam Hussein’s son Uday. The photos are presented in panels, with each portrait shot against the same color background, and it is remarkable how the individuality of each sitter comes through. Ok, maybe not with the rabbits. Taryn Simon is a very talented photographic portraitist and the exhibit is thought provoking , an interesting continuation of the concept of portraiture and the cataloging of humankind as seen in the work of August Sander. Also, I would highly recommend the book for any collector.
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