Taryn Simon

American photographer Taryn Simon has a new exhibition opening in a couple of weeks so this seems to be the perfect time to look back at her 2007 show, “An American Index of the Hidden and Unfamiliar,” at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.

This exhibition contained photographs taken over a five year period in the USA, which documented private and ‘secret’ places across the country within the realms of government, science, security and nature. Sites include the Forensic Anthropology Research Facility (where 60 decaying bodies are laid out to recreate crime scenes) and the Research Marijuana Crop Grow Room in Mississippi, the only place in the USA licensed to cultivate cannabis for scientific research. The images were exhibited and the collection printed as a book. See images below with Taryn’s captions, and for more info see www.tarynsimon.com