Taryn Simon: 'A Living Man Declared Dead and Other Chapters I-XVIII'

May 3, 2012 4:00 AM EDT

If Taryn Simon hadn’t become a photographer, she could have made a fortune in sales, because she has persuasive powers that the rest of us can only dream of. For her 2007 exhibition and book An American Index of the Hidden and Unfamiliar, she got herself admitted to dozens of places where outsiders with cameras aren’t usually allowed, including a nuclear-waste storage facility and a reconstructed crime scene at a forensic research center, complete with a rotting corpse. For another project, Contraband, she persuaded the wary authorities at John F. Kennedy International Airport to let her photograph every item seized by customs over a five-day period, from counterfeit Viagra to cow-dung toothpaste. Despite a personal manner that’s the last word in low-key, she has a way of getting what she wants. “If somebody closes the door,” she says, “I have to find another way to get in.”

Simon, 37, had to find a lot of ways in for her new show, A Living Man Declared Dead and Other Chapters, which is on view through Sept. 3 at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City before moving to the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles. The organizing principle for this project is what she calls bloodlines: all the living descendants, plus any living forebears, of a single man or woman who sets a story in motion. Traveling to 25 countries, Simon tracked down hundreds of family members bound together by not just genealogy but often some curious or painful fate.

Read more about Taryn Simon in this week’s issue of TIME: There Will Be Bloodlines

Chapter XVII, *A Living Man Declared Dead and Other Chapters I–XVIII*© 2012 Taryn Simon

Excerpt from Chapter XVII, *A Living Man Declared Dead and Other Chapters I–XVIII* © 2012 Taryn Simon

Excerpt from Chapter XVII, *A Living Man Declared Dead and Other Chapters I–XVIII* 5. (Name withheld), 16 Mar. 1993. Student. Undisclosed location, Ukraine. 18. (Name withheld), 25 Nov. 1993. Student. Undisclosed location, Ukraine. 19. (Name withheld), 17 Jan. 1994. Student. Undisclosed location, Ukraine. © 2012 Taryn Simon

Excerpt from Chapter XVII, *A Living Man Declared Dead and Other Chapters I–XVIII* a. History classroom at the orphanage with framed inscription above the blackboard. Translated from Ukrainian, it reads: “Those who do not know their past are not worthy of their future…” Undisclosed location, Ukraine. d. Wooden figure of a stork delivering a child, made by one of the children at the orphanage. Undisclosed location, Ukraine. b. Boys’ bedroom at the orphanage. Undisclosed location, Ukraine. c. Girls’ bedroom at the orphanage. Undisclosed location, Ukraine. © 2012 Taryn Simon

Chapter III, *A Living Man Declared Dead and Other Chapters I–XVIII*© 2012 Taryn Simon

Excerpt from Chapter III, *A Living Man Declared Dead and Other Chapters I–XVIII* © 2012 Taryn Simon

Excerpt from Chapter III, *A Living Man Declared Dead and Other Chapters I–XVIII* c. Photographs of Celtel GSM mobile communications towers. Joseph Nyamwanda Jura Ondijo’s land was selected by Celtel to host a tower, for which the company pays him significant royalties. The location of the tower is viewed by some village residents as evidence of Ondijo’s power. Company image and family file, Kisumu. 81. Nyamwanda, Mary Atieno, 07 Mar. 1989. Farmer. Kisumu, Nyanza Province, Kenya. 82. Nyamwanda, Lameck Odhiambo, 07 May 2008. Kisumu, Nyanza Province, Kenya. © 2012 Taryn Simon

Chapter VII, *A Living Man Declared Dead and Other Chapters I–XVIII*© 2012 Taryn Simon

Excerpt from Chapter VII, *A Living Man Declared Dead and Other Chapters I–XVIII* 1. Nukic, Nezir, 1928 (exact birth date unknown). Forester and road builder. Zivinice, Bosnia and Herzegovina. 2. Mehic, Zumra, 09 Dec. 1950. Homemaker. Kladanj, Bosnia and Herzegovina. 3. Mehic, Bajazit, 16 Sept. 1972 – 11 July 1995. Mortal remains, International Commission on Missing Persons, Podrinje Identification Project. Tuzla, Bosnia and Herzegovina. 4. Mehic, Ahmedin, 16 Feb. 1974 – 12 July 1995. Tooth sample used for DNA matching, International Commission on Missing Persons. Srebrenica-Potocari Memorial and Cemetery, Srebrenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina. © 2012 Taryn Simon

Excerpt from Chapter VII, *A Living Man Declared Dead and Other Chapters I–XVIII* a. Personal effects discovered in a mass grave. Podrinje Identification Project, Tuzla. d. Video footage introduced at former Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic’s trial, revealing a Serbian paramilitary unit’s involvement in the Srebrenica massacre. It depicts an Orthodox priest blessing members of the “Scorpions” unit, who are subsequently shown lining up six young Bosnian Muslim men along a dirt road. The young men are later shot in the back in a grassy area beside the road. Undisclosed source, Sarajevo. © 2012 Taryn Simon

Chapter VI, *A Living Man Declared Dead and Other Chapters I–XVIII*© 2012 Taryn Simon

Excerpt from Chapter VI, *A Living Man Declared Dead and Other Chapters I–XVIII* © 2012 Taryn Simon

Excerpt from Chapter VI, *A Living Man Declared Dead and Other Chapters I–XVIII* VI, B 15. No. 337, 28 Mar. 2009. Inglewood, Queensland, Australia. 16. No. 338, 28 Mar. 2009. Inglewood, Queensland, Australia. © 2012 Taryn Simon

Excerpt from Chapter VI, *A Living Man Declared Dead and Other Chapters I–XVIII* a. Haigh’s chocolate Easter Bilby replaced Haigh’s Easter Bunny in 1993. Haigh’s stopped making chocolate bunnies and joined forces with the Foundation for Rabbit-Free Australia in an effort to counter the annual celebration of rabbits. Product of Haigh’s Chocolates, Adelaide. b. Rabbits killed with .22 Magnum rifles by NatureCall, an organization hired to eliminate rabbits from private properties. Dead rabbits are laid out to record data, including sex, age, pregnancy, and active virus status. Cattle-grazing property west of Kingaroy, Queensland. © 2012 Taryn Simon

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