'Evidence' – this term is a central aspect of the artistic work of Taryn Simon. From diverse angles the American photographer explores the evidential value of photography, its factual power to transform assertions into reality.
The young photographer became internationally known in the mid-1990s with her work Innocents, a series of staged portraits of persons unjustly convicted (often social outcasts) in the United States. This view of things was followed up by the images that went to make up An American Index of the Hidden and Unfamiliar: In each we see a certain constellation of things from the most disparate social areas such as science or religion, which act to contradict the American myth of liberty and equal rights.
What Taryn Simon’s works all have in common is the fascinating method the photographer employs to illuminate the „Dark Side of Life”, to make visible things previously unseen and to expand the dimension behind the visible using text. As such she represents one of the most important positions of an expanded concept of documentary photographic work.

The Olbricht Collection (Essen) possesses an extraordinary set of works from this young oeuvre. A selection of them will be on view from 9 November in the  Section "Post-War and Contemporary Art".

Taryn Simon -