For a month or so before Christmas, I had been admiring an inconspicuous book at my local Borders. The dark grey and black book had no images on the cover. The title was announced in small and simple text – An American Index of the Hidden and Unfamiliar.
On Christmas, my girlfriend, aware of my secret lust of the book, gave it to me.
Inside, is a book of great wonder. Artist Taryn Simon set out to photograph things we don’t ever see – the “Hidden and Unfamiliar.” The book is filled with incredible images – images of a cryopreservation chamber (above), nuclear waste, a braille issue of Playboy, a death row inmate, live HIV, CIA Headquarters. The index takes a look at subjects that have remained inaccessible or unknown to the public. Vast and innovative in its scope, Ms. Simon’s art is something to be looked at often, but with a grave sense of awe.
The author Salmon Rushdie, who wrote the forward for the collection, had this to say:
“I am always immensely grateful to people who do impossible things on my behalf and bring back the picture. It means I don’t have to do it, but at least I know what it looks like. So one’s first feeling on looking at many of these extraordinary images is gratitude, (followed quickly by a momentary pang of envy: the sedentary writer’s salute to the woman of action).”
The 70 color plates sneak us into classified territory – we’re given a behind-the-scenes look at things we’ve always wondered about, and several of which we didn’t even know existed. As Mr. Rushdie concludes his forward, “When a photographer comes up with an image as potently expressive as that, even a dedicated word-person such as myself is bound to concede that such a picture is worth at least a thousand words.”
2007, Steidl Publishers.
