‘I investigate photography's ability to blur truth and fiction, and its influence on memory, which can lead to severe, even lethal consequences.’

Taryn Simon

Taryn Simon’s An American Index of the Hidden and Unfamiliar documents the unseen activities of government, science, religion and security in the United States. To create her seductive images, Simon meticulously researches the vast topics that she covers even before picking up her camera. Research Marijuana Crop Grow Room, National Center for Natural Products Research, Oxford, Mississippi depicts the only federally funded site where it is legal to cultivate cannabis for scientific research. Simon’s work explores the unknown, our tendency to not think about what one cannot see and digests the idea of privileged access to information.

Simon is a multidisciplinary artist who has worked in photography, text, sculpture, film/video and performance. Her work is held in museum collections worldwide, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Tate Modern, London; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; and Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt.