A Living Man Declared Dead And Other Chapters

It's been a really long time since we've seen an art show that has blown us away and that's exactly what Taryn Simon, an American photographer, managed to do on a muggy, rainy Monday afternoon in New York City at the Museum of Modern Art. The presentation is, at first, a series of seemingly ordinary portraits with some text to supplement them, mounted within extra-large frames. However, as the viewer engages deeper into what is presented on the walls, the context, environment, and conditions in which the photo subjects exist under slowly unfolds to tell the stories that Simon meticulously researched and recorded. Four years in the making, Simon beautifully illustrates the bloodlines of the people related to stories of hijackings, genocide, polygamy, diseases and many other events that have happened around the world. It all makes you realize the enormity of the planet and all the various things that happen to people (and even animals) on a day-to-day basis that you may or may never know about. (images: www.tarynsimon.com)