It is a well known fact that innocent people are convicted of crimes they did not commit. This flaw in all criminal justice systems is one of the most compelling arguments for the abolition of the death penalty. Although there are examples of such miscarriages of justice around the world the USA tends to present some of the most compelling. As 10 October marked World Day Against the Death Penalty I was interested to see this short talk by photographer Taryn Simon on her 2005 work ‘The Innocents‘.
The first half of the talk focusses on Simon’s latest work entitled ‘An American Index of the Hidden and Unfamiliar’ which is worth watching in itself. ‘The Innocents’ that follows is a series of photographs of men convicted of violent crimes they did not commit, many receiving a death sentence. The photos locate the men either at the scene of the crime, the location of their alibi, or the place of their arrest.
Not only does the series highlight the frailty of our memories and the problems with witness identification, but also the challenges of the policy using photography in their work to identify criminals.
Filed under: Photography Tagged: | conference, photographers, representation
