I will be released

June 24, 2003 5:56 PM

"Taryn Simon: The Innocents" Is an exhibition at MOMA's P.S.1 Contemporary Arts Center, of large color photographs of innocent men jailed for crimes they did not commit, exonerated by DNA evidence. For most of the photographs Ms. Simon posed each man at the scene of the arrest, the scene of the crime, the scene of misidentification or the scene of the alibi.
posted by jdaura (6 comments total)

In the time it took to post the "exhibition" link here, it appears P.S.1's server went down. The link is also dead from the MOMA Home page. Friggin' murphey's law or something. I'm sure it will be back up, it's an established modern art gallery in NYC associated with MOMA. sorry in the meantime.
posted by jdaura at 6:07 PM on June 24, 2003

Excellent post.
posted by four panels at 6:41 PM on June 24, 2003

jdaura - thanks for posting this. I had no problem with either of the links, btw.
This was extremely powerful stuff. You wonder how these people coped, can cope. And how many crimes just get closed to close them? The horrific part is that while these people were robbed of any semblance of a normal life, the guilty parties were not identified and left in circulation to commit further violent acts.
posted by madamjujujive at 6:54 PM on June 24, 2003

this is amazing. what a find!

i'm amazed at the number of people she was able to find...well, amazed? no. amazed that there were so many that were willing to be part of an art exhibit.

this is pretty powerful stuff...i hope it gets on TV or something.
posted by taumeson at 6:57 PM on June 24, 2003

I can't believe there's no financial restitution provided by the government for this kind of thing. I sometimes wonder how I would feel if I had years of my life stolen from me -- no, even worse than that. If they'd just been stolen, that would be awful, but having to actually live out that time knowing all along you were innocent... that just kills me.

And on a more photographic note: what a great, great subject to cover. I saw an exhibition recently that showed people's faces the moment they were sentenced to the death penalty, and it was heartbreaking.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 8:34 PM on June 24, 2003

IIRC, PS1 was also the home to the painting of the naked man chasing an oversized goose that was sold on eBay a couple of months ago.

Best work of art.. ever.
posted by dr_dank at 10:07 AM on June 25, 2003