Taryn Simon photographs secret sites

102,775 views ・ 2009-09-24

TED


Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

00:18
Okay, so
0
18330
2000
00:20
90 percent of my photographic process
1
20330
3000
00:23
is, in fact, not photographic.
2
23330
2000
00:25
It involves a campaign of letter writing,
3
25330
3000
00:28
research and phone calls
4
28330
2000
00:30
to access my subjects,
5
30330
2000
00:32
which can range from Hamas leaders in Gaza
6
32330
3000
00:35
to a hibernating black bear in its cave
7
35330
3000
00:38
in West Virginia.
8
38330
3000
00:41
And oddly, the most notable
9
41330
3000
00:44
letter of rejection I ever received
10
44330
2000
00:46
came from Walt Disney World,
11
46330
2000
00:48
a seemingly innocuous site.
12
48330
2000
00:50
And it read -- I'm just going to read a key sentence:
13
50330
3000
00:53
"Especially during these violent times,
14
53330
3000
00:56
I personally believe
15
56330
2000
00:58
that the magical spell cast upon guests who visit our theme parks
16
58330
4000
01:02
is particularly important to protect
17
62330
3000
01:05
and helps to provide them with an important fantasy
18
65330
2000
01:07
they can escape to."
19
67330
2000
01:09
Photography threatens fantasy.
20
69330
3000
01:12
They didn't want to let my camera in
21
72330
2000
01:14
because it confronts constructed realities, myths and beliefs,
22
74330
4000
01:18
and provides what appears to be
23
78330
3000
01:21
evidence of a truth.
24
81330
2000
01:23
But there are multiple truths attached to every image,
25
83330
3000
01:26
depending on the creator's intention, the viewer
26
86330
3000
01:29
and the context in which it is presented.
27
89330
4000
01:33
Over a five year period following September 11th,
28
93330
3000
01:36
when the American media and government were seeking
29
96330
2000
01:38
hidden and unknown sites
30
98330
2000
01:40
beyond its borders,
31
100330
2000
01:42
most notably weapons of mass destruction,
32
102330
3000
01:45
I chose to look inward at that which was integral
33
105330
3000
01:48
to America's foundation,
34
108330
2000
01:50
mythology and daily functioning.
35
110330
2000
01:52
I wanted to confront the boundaries of the citizen,
36
112330
3000
01:55
self-imposed and real,
37
115330
2000
01:57
and confront the divide between privileged
38
117330
3000
02:00
and public access to knowledge.
39
120330
4000
02:04
It was a critical moment in American history
40
124330
3000
02:07
and global history
41
127330
2000
02:09
where one felt they didn't have access to accurate information.
42
129330
3000
02:12
And I wanted to see the center with my own eyes,
43
132330
4000
02:16
but what I came away with is a photograph.
44
136330
3000
02:19
And it's just another place from which to observe,
45
139330
2000
02:21
and the understanding that
46
141330
2000
02:23
there are no absolute, all-knowing insiders.
47
143330
3000
02:26
And the outsider can never really reach the core.
48
146330
5000
02:31
I'm going to run through some of the photographs in this series.
49
151330
4000
02:35
It's titled, "An American Index
50
155330
2000
02:37
of the Hidden and Unfamiliar,"
51
157330
2000
02:39
and it's comprised of nearly 70 images.
52
159330
3000
02:42
In this context I'll just show you a few.
53
162330
2000
02:44
This is a nuclear waste storage and encapsulation facility
54
164330
5000
02:49
at Hanford site in Washington State,
55
169330
2000
02:51
where there are over 1,900
56
171330
2000
02:53
stainless steel capsules containing nuclear waste
57
173330
2000
02:55
submerged in water.
58
175330
2000
02:57
A human standing in front of an unprotected capsule would die instantly.
59
177330
4000
03:01
And I found one section amongst all of these
60
181330
3000
03:04
that actually resembled the outline
61
184330
2000
03:06
of the United States of America,
62
186330
2000
03:08
which you can see here.
63
188330
2000
03:10
And a big part of the work that is
64
190330
2000
03:12
sort of absent in this context is text.
65
192330
4000
03:16
So I create these two poles.
66
196330
2000
03:18
Every image is accompanied with a very detailed factual text.
67
198330
4000
03:22
And what I'm most interested in
68
202330
2000
03:24
is the invisible space between a text
69
204330
3000
03:27
and its accompanying image,
70
207330
2000
03:29
and how the image is transformed by the text
71
209330
3000
03:32
and the text by the image.
72
212330
2000
03:34
So, at best, the image is meant to float away
73
214330
2000
03:36
into abstraction and multiple truths and fantasy.
74
216330
4000
03:40
And then the text functions as this cruel anchor
75
220330
3000
03:43
that kind of nails it to the ground.
76
223330
2000
03:45
But in this context I'm just going to read
77
225330
3000
03:48
an abridged version of those texts.
78
228330
2000
03:50
This is a cryopreservation unit,
79
230330
3000
03:53
and it holds the bodies of the wife and mother
80
233330
2000
03:55
of cryonics pioneer Robert Ettinger,
81
235330
2000
03:57
who hoped to be awoken one day to extended life
82
237330
3000
04:00
in good health, with advancements in science and technology,
83
240330
4000
04:04
all for the cost of 35 thousand dollars, for forever.
84
244330
5000
04:09
This is a 21-year-old Palestinian woman
85
249330
3000
04:12
undergoing hymenoplasty.
86
252330
2000
04:14
Hymenoplasty is a surgical procedure which restores the virginal state,
87
254330
5000
04:19
allowing her to adhere to certain cultural expectations
88
259330
3000
04:22
regarding virginity and marriage.
89
262330
2000
04:24
So it essentially reconstructs a ruptured hymen,
90
264330
3000
04:27
allowing her to bleed upon having sexual intercourse,
91
267330
4000
04:31
to simulate the loss of virginity.
92
271330
3000
04:34
This is a jury simulation deliberation room,
93
274330
3000
04:37
and you can see beyond that two-way mirror
94
277330
2000
04:39
jury advisers standing in a room behind the mirror.
95
279330
4000
04:43
And they observe deliberations
96
283330
2000
04:45
after mock trial proceedings
97
285330
2000
04:47
so that they can better advise their clients how to adjust their trial strategy
98
287330
4000
04:51
to have the outcome that they're hoping for.
99
291330
3000
04:54
This process costs 60,000 dollars.
100
294330
5000
04:59
This is a U.S. Customs and Border Protection room,
101
299330
4000
05:03
a contraband room, at John F. Kennedy International Airport.
102
303330
3000
05:06
On that table you can see 48 hours' worth
103
306330
3000
05:09
of seized goods from passengers entering in to the United States.
104
309330
4000
05:13
There is a pig's head and African cane rats.
105
313330
4000
05:17
And part of my photographic work
106
317330
2000
05:19
is I'm not just documenting what's there.
107
319330
3000
05:22
I do take certain liberties and intervene.
108
322330
3000
05:25
And in this I really wanted it to resemble
109
325330
2000
05:27
an early still-life painting,
110
327330
2000
05:29
so I spent some time with the smells and items.
111
329330
5000
05:34
This is the exhibited art on the walls of the CIA
112
334330
3000
05:37
in Langley, Virginia, their original headquarters building.
113
337330
3000
05:40
And the CIA has had a long history
114
340330
3000
05:43
with both covert and public cultural diplomacy efforts.
115
343330
4000
05:47
And it's speculated that some of their interest in the arts
116
347330
2000
05:49
was designed to counter Soviet communism
117
349330
3000
05:52
and promote what it considered to be pro-American
118
352330
2000
05:54
thoughts and aesthetics.
119
354330
2000
05:56
And one of the art forms that elicited the interest of the agency,
120
356330
4000
06:00
and had thus come under question, is abstract expressionism.
121
360330
6000
06:06
This is the Forensic Anthropology Research Facility,
122
366330
4000
06:10
and on a six acre plot
123
370330
2000
06:12
there are approximately 75 cadavers at any given time
124
372330
4000
06:16
that are being studied by forensic anthropologists
125
376330
3000
06:19
and researchers who are interested in monitoring
126
379330
3000
06:22
a rate of corpse decomposition.
127
382330
3000
06:25
And in this particular photograph the body of a young boy
128
385330
3000
06:28
has been used to reenact a crime scene.
129
388330
4000
06:32
This is the only federally funded site
130
392330
3000
06:35
where it is legal to cultivate cannabis
131
395330
3000
06:38
for scientific research in the United States.
132
398330
3000
06:41
It's a research crop marijuana grow room.
133
401330
2000
06:43
And part of the work that I hope for
134
403330
3000
06:46
is that there is a sort of disorienting entropy
135
406330
3000
06:49
where you can't find any discernible formula in how these things --
136
409330
4000
06:53
they sort of awkwardly jump from government to science
137
413330
3000
06:56
to religion to security --
138
416330
2000
06:58
and you can't completely understand
139
418330
3000
07:01
how information is being distributed.
140
421330
4000
07:05
These are transatlantic submarine communication cables
141
425330
3000
07:08
that travel across the floor of the Atlantic Ocean,
142
428330
3000
07:11
connecting North America to Europe.
143
431330
2000
07:13
They carry over 60 million simultaneous voice conversations,
144
433330
4000
07:17
and in a lot of the government and technology sites
145
437330
3000
07:20
there was just this very apparent vulnerability.
146
440330
3000
07:23
This one is almost humorous because it feels like I could
147
443330
2000
07:25
just snip all of that conversation in one easy cut.
148
445330
3000
07:28
But stuff did feel like it could have been taken
149
448330
4000
07:32
30 or 40 years ago, like it was locked in the Cold War era
150
452330
4000
07:36
and hadn't necessarily progressed.
151
456330
3000
07:39
This is a Braille edition of Playboy magazine.
152
459330
3000
07:42
(Laughter)
153
462330
2000
07:44
And this is ... a division of the Library of Congress
154
464330
2000
07:46
produces a free national library service
155
466330
4000
07:50
for the blind and visually impaired,
156
470330
2000
07:52
and the publications they choose to publish
157
472330
2000
07:54
are based on reader popularity.
158
474330
3000
07:57
And Playboy is always in the top few.
159
477330
2000
07:59
(Laughter)
160
479330
2000
08:01
But you'd be surprised, they don't do the photographs. It's just the text.
161
481330
4000
08:05
(Laughter)
162
485330
1000
08:06
This is an avian quarantine facility
163
486330
2000
08:08
where all imported birds coming into America
164
488330
2000
08:10
are required to undergo a 30-day quarantine,
165
490330
3000
08:13
where they are tested for diseases
166
493330
2000
08:15
including Exotic Newcastle Disease
167
495330
2000
08:17
and Avian Influenza.
168
497330
4000
08:21
This film shows
169
501330
4000
08:25
the testing of a new explosive fill on a warhead.
170
505330
4000
08:29
And the Air Armament Center
171
509330
2000
08:31
at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida
172
511330
2000
08:33
is responsible for the deployment and testing
173
513330
2000
08:35
of all air-delivered weaponry
174
515330
3000
08:38
coming from the United States.
175
518330
4000
08:42
And the film was shot on 72 millimeter, government-issue film.
176
522330
4000
08:46
And that red dot is a marking on the government-issue film.
177
526330
4000
08:50
All living white tigers in North America
178
530330
3000
08:53
are the result of selective inbreeding --
179
533330
2000
08:55
that would be mother to son,
180
535330
2000
08:57
father to daughter, sister to brother --
181
537330
2000
08:59
to allow for the genetic conditions
182
539330
3000
09:02
that create a salable white tiger.
183
542330
2000
09:04
Meaning white fur, ice blue eyes, a pink nose.
184
544330
4000
09:08
And the majority of these white tigers
185
548330
3000
09:11
are not born in a salable state
186
551330
2000
09:13
and are killed at birth.
187
553330
2000
09:15
It's a very violent process that is little known.
188
555330
3000
09:18
And the white tiger is obviously celebrated in several forms of entertainment.
189
558330
5000
09:23
Kenny was born. He actually made it to adulthood.
190
563330
3000
09:26
He has since passed away,
191
566330
2000
09:28
but was mentally retarded
192
568330
2000
09:30
and suffers from severe bone abnormalities.
193
570330
4000
09:34
This, on a lighter note, is at
194
574330
2000
09:36
George Lucas' personal archive.
195
576330
3000
09:39
This is the Death Star.
196
579330
2000
09:41
And it's shown here in its true orientation.
197
581330
3000
09:44
In the context of "Star Wars: Return of the Jedi,"
198
584330
2000
09:46
its mirror image is presented.
199
586330
2000
09:48
They flip the negative.
200
588330
2000
09:50
And you can see the photoetched brass detailing,
201
590330
3000
09:53
and the painted acrylic facade.
202
593330
2000
09:55
In the context of the film,
203
595330
2000
09:57
this is a deep-space battle station of the Galactic Empire,
204
597330
3000
10:00
capable of annihilating planets and civilizations,
205
600330
4000
10:04
and in reality it measures about four feet by two feet.
206
604330
3000
10:07
(Laughter)
207
607330
4000
10:11
This is at Fort Campbell in Kentucky.
208
611330
3000
10:14
It's a Military Operations on Urbanized Terrain site.
209
614330
3000
10:17
Essentially they've simulated a city
210
617330
3000
10:20
for urban combat,
211
620330
2000
10:22
and this is one of the structures that exists in that city.
212
622330
2000
10:24
It's called the World Church of God.
213
624330
3000
10:27
It's supposed to be a generic site of worship.
214
627330
3000
10:30
And after I took this photograph,
215
630330
3000
10:33
they constructed a wall around the World Church of God
216
633330
2000
10:35
to mimic the set-up of mosques in Afghanistan or Iraq.
217
635330
5000
10:40
And I worked with Mehta Vihar
218
640330
2000
10:42
who creates virtual simulations for the army
219
642330
3000
10:45
for tactical practice.
220
645330
2000
10:47
And we put that wall around the World Church of God,
221
647330
2000
10:49
and also used the characters and vehicles and explosions
222
649330
4000
10:53
that are offered in the video games for the army.
223
653330
3000
10:56
And I put them into my photograph.
224
656330
4000
11:00
This is live HIV virus
225
660330
2000
11:02
at Harvard Medical School, who is working with the U.S. Government
226
662330
2000
11:04
to develop sterilizing immunity.
227
664330
4000
11:08
And Alhurra is a U.S. Government- sponsored
228
668330
3000
11:11
Arabic language television network
229
671330
3000
11:14
that distributes news and information to over 22 countries in the Arab world.
230
674330
5000
11:19
It runs 24 hours a day, commercial free.
231
679330
3000
11:22
However, it's illegal to broadcast Alhurra within the United States.
232
682330
5000
11:27
And in 2004, they developed a channel called Alhurra Iraq,
233
687330
3000
11:30
which specifically deals with events occurring in Iraq
234
690330
3000
11:33
and is broadcast to Iraq.
235
693330
3000
11:36
Now I'm going to move on to another project I did.
236
696330
2000
11:38
It's titled "The Innocents."
237
698330
3000
11:41
And for the men in these photographs,
238
701330
2000
11:43
photography had been used to create a fantasy.
239
703330
3000
11:46
Contradicting its function as evidence of a truth,
240
706330
3000
11:49
in these instances it furthered the fabrication of a lie.
241
709330
4000
11:53
I traveled across the United States
242
713330
2000
11:55
photographing men and women who had been wrongfully convicted
243
715330
3000
11:58
of crimes they did not commit, violent crimes.
244
718330
4000
12:02
I investigate photography's ability to blur truth and fiction,
245
722330
4000
12:06
and its influence on memory,
246
726330
2000
12:08
which can lead to severe, even lethal consequences.
247
728330
4000
12:12
For the men in these photographs,
248
732330
2000
12:14
the primary cause of their wrongful conviction
249
734330
2000
12:16
was mistaken identification.
250
736330
3000
12:19
A victim or eyewitness identifies
251
739330
2000
12:21
a suspected perpetrator
252
741330
2000
12:23
through law enforcement's use of images.
253
743330
3000
12:26
But through exposure to composite sketches,
254
746330
2000
12:28
Polaroids, mug shots and line-ups,
255
748330
3000
12:31
eyewitness testimony can change.
256
751330
2000
12:33
I'll give you an example from a case.
257
753330
3000
12:36
A woman was raped and presented with a series of photographs
258
756330
3000
12:39
from which to identify her attacker.
259
759330
2000
12:41
She saw some similarities in one of the photographs,
260
761330
4000
12:45
but couldn't quite make a positive identification.
261
765330
2000
12:47
Days later, she is presented with another photo array
262
767330
4000
12:51
of all new photographs,
263
771330
2000
12:53
except that one photograph that she had some draw to
264
773330
3000
12:56
from the earlier array is repeated in the second array.
265
776330
3000
12:59
And a positive identification is made
266
779330
3000
13:02
because the photograph replaced the memory,
267
782330
2000
13:04
if there ever was an actual memory.
268
784330
4000
13:08
Photography offered the criminal justice system
269
788330
3000
13:11
a tool that transformed innocent citizens into criminals,
270
791330
3000
13:14
and the criminal justice system failed to recognize the limitations
271
794330
4000
13:18
of relying on photographic identifications.
272
798330
4000
13:22
Frederick Daye, who is photographed at his alibi location,
273
802330
4000
13:26
where 13 witnesses placed him at the time of the crime.
274
806330
3000
13:29
He was convicted by an all-white jury
275
809330
3000
13:32
of rape, kidnapping and vehicle theft.
276
812330
2000
13:34
And he served 10 years of a life sentence.
277
814330
4000
13:38
Now DNA exonerated Frederick
278
818330
2000
13:40
and it also implicated another man
279
820330
2000
13:42
who was serving time in prison.
280
822330
2000
13:44
But the victim refused to press charges
281
824330
2000
13:46
because she claimed that law enforcement
282
826330
2000
13:48
had permanently altered her memory through the use of Frederick's photograph.
283
828330
5000
13:53
Charles Fain was convicted of kidnapping, rape and murder
284
833330
4000
13:57
of a young girl walking to school.
285
837330
2000
13:59
He served 18 years of a death sentence.
286
839330
3000
14:02
I photographed him at the scene of the crime
287
842330
2000
14:04
at the Snake River in Idaho.
288
844330
2000
14:06
And I photographed all of the wrongfully convicted
289
846330
4000
14:10
at sites that came to particular significance
290
850330
5000
14:15
in the history of their wrongful conviction.
291
855330
2000
14:17
The scene of arrest, the scene of misidentification,
292
857330
2000
14:19
the alibi location.
293
859330
2000
14:21
And here, the scene of the crime, it's this place
294
861330
2000
14:23
to which he's never been, but changed his life forever.
295
863330
4000
14:27
So photographing there, I was hoping to highlight
296
867330
2000
14:29
the tenuous relationship between truth and fiction,
297
869330
3000
14:32
in both his life and in photography.
298
872330
5000
14:37
Calvin Washington was convicted of capital murder.
299
877330
3000
14:40
He served 13 years of a life sentence in Waco, Texas.
300
880330
5000
14:45
Larry Mayes, I photographed at the scene of arrest,
301
885330
3000
14:48
where he hid between two mattresses in Gary, Indiana,
302
888330
2000
14:50
in this very room to hide from the police.
303
890330
4000
14:54
He ended up serving 18 and a half years
304
894330
2000
14:56
of an 80 year sentence for rape and robbery.
305
896330
3000
14:59
The victim failed to identify Larry
306
899330
2000
15:01
in two live lineups
307
901330
2000
15:03
and then made a positive identification, days later,
308
903330
3000
15:06
from a photo array.
309
906330
3000
15:09
Larry Youngblood served eight years of a 10 and half year sentence
310
909330
3000
15:12
in Arizona for the abduction and repeated sodomizing
311
912330
4000
15:16
of a 10 year old boy at a carnival.
312
916330
3000
15:19
He is photographed at his alibi location.
313
919330
4000
15:23
Ron Williamson. Ron was convicted of the rape and murder
314
923330
4000
15:27
of a barmaid at a club,
315
927330
2000
15:29
and served 11 years of a death sentence.
316
929330
3000
15:32
I photographed Ron at a baseball field
317
932330
2000
15:34
because he had been drafted to the Oakland A's
318
934330
2000
15:36
to play professional baseball just before his conviction.
319
936330
4000
15:40
And the state's key witness in Ron's case
320
940330
3000
15:43
was, in the end, the actual perpetrator.
321
943330
5000
15:48
Ronald Jones served eight years of a death sentence
322
948330
4000
15:52
for rape and murder of a 28-year-old woman.
323
952330
2000
15:54
I photographed him at the scene of arrest in Chicago.
324
954330
5000
15:59
William Gregory was convicted of rape and burglary.
325
959330
4000
16:03
He served seven years of a 70 year sentence in Kentucky.
326
963330
5000
16:08
Timothy Durham, who I photographed at his alibi location
327
968330
3000
16:11
where 11 witnesses placed him at the time of the crime,
328
971330
3000
16:14
was convicted of 3.5 years
329
974330
2000
16:16
of a 3220 year sentence,
330
976330
5000
16:21
for several charges of rape and robbery.
331
981330
2000
16:23
He had been misidentified by an 11-year-old victim.
332
983330
5000
16:28
Troy Webb is photographed here at the scene of the crime in Virginia.
333
988330
4000
16:32
He was convicted of rape, kidnapping and robbery,
334
992330
3000
16:35
and served seven years of a 47 year sentence.
335
995330
4000
16:39
Troy's picture was in a photo array
336
999330
2000
16:41
that the victim tentatively had some draw toward,
337
1001330
2000
16:43
but said he looked too old.
338
1003330
3000
16:46
The police went and found a photograph of Troy Webb
339
1006330
3000
16:49
from four years earlier,
340
1009330
2000
16:51
which they entered into a photo array days later,
341
1011330
3000
16:54
and he was positively identified.
342
1014330
4000
16:58
Now I'm going to leave you with a self portrait.
343
1018330
4000
17:02
And it reiterates that distortion is a constant,
344
1022330
4000
17:06
and our eyes are easily deceived.
345
1026330
3000
17:19
That's it. Thank you.
346
1039330
2000
17:21
(Applause)
347
1041330
8000
About this website

This site will introduce you to YouTube videos that are useful for learning English. You will see English lessons taught by top-notch teachers from around the world. Double-click on the English subtitles displayed on each video page to play the video from there. The subtitles scroll in sync with the video playback. If you have any comments or requests, please contact us using this contact form.

https://forms.gle/WvT1wiN1qDtmnspy7