“The Innocents documents the stories of individuals who served time in prison for violent crimes they did not commit. At issue is the question of photography’s function as a credible eyewitness and arbiter of justice. 

The primary cause of wrongful conviction is mistaken identification. A victim or eyewitness identifies a suspected perpetrator through law enforcement’s use of photographs and lineups. This procedure relies on the assumption of precise visual memory. But, through exposure to composite sketches, mugshots, Polaroids, and lineups, eyewitness memory can change. In the history of these cases, photography offered the criminal justice system a tool that transformed innocent citizens into criminals. Photographs assisted officers in obtaining eyewitness identifications and aided prosecutors in securing convictions. 

Simon photographed these men at sites that had particular significance to their illegitimate conviction: the scene of misidentification, the scene of arrest, the scene of the crime or the scene of the alibi. All of these locations hold contradictory meanings for the subjects. The scene of arrest marks the starting point of a reality based in fiction. The scene of the crime is at once arbitrary and crucial: this place, to which they have never been, changed their lives forever. In these photographs Simon confronts photography’s ability to blur truth and fiction-an ambiguity that can have severe, even lethal consequences.” 

Source: http://tarynsimon.com/works_innocents.php

1. Scene of arrest, South Side, Chicago, Illinois 
Served 8 years of a death sentence for Rape and Murder

2. Lake Huron, Port Huron, Michigan
 Served 15 years of a 65-year sentence for Rape and Robbery

3. C&E Motel, Room No. 24, Waco, Texas
 Where an informant claimed to have heard Washington confess
 Served 13 years of a Life sentence for Capital Murder

4. Scene of arrest, The Royal Inn, Gary, Indiana 
Police found Mayes hiding beneath a mattress in this room
Served 18.5 years of an 80-year sentence for Rape, Robbery, and Unlawful Deviate Conduct

5. Scene of the crime, the snake River, Melba, Idaho
 Served 18 years of a death sentence for Kidnapping, Rape and murder

6. Alibi location, American Legion Post 310, San Diego, California
 Where 13 witnesses placed Daye at the time of the crime
Served 10 years of a life sentence for Kidnapping, Rape and Vehicle Theft

7. Scene of the crime, The Pines, Virginia Beach, Virginia
 Served 7 years of a 47-year sentence for Kidnapping, Rape and Robbery

8. Skeet shooting, Tulsa, Oklahoma
 11 alibi witnesses placed Durham at a skeet-shooting competition at the time of the crime
 Served 3.5 years of a 3,220 year sentence for Rape and Robbery

9. Alibi location, Tucson, Arizona
With Alice Laitner, Youngblood’s girlfriend and alibi witness at trial 
Served 8 years of a 10.5 year sentence for Sexual Assault, Kidnapping and Child Molestation

(via areashape)

Shizuka Yokomizo, Dear Stranger

For this 1998-2000 series of portraits, photographer Shizuka Yokomizo left several anonymous letters on the doorsteps of random ground floor apartments that read:

“Dear Stranger,

I am an artist working on a photographic project which involves people I do not know…. I would like to take a photograph of you standing in your front room from the street in the evening.”

The letter specified a certain ten-minute period during which the artist would approach, take the picture, and slip back into the darkness. She would only reveal her identity once her subjects received a print and contact information (so that they could let her know if they objected to their portrait being exhibited).

Yokomizo made sure that when the photos were taken, the light would be too dark outside to see her — it would only allow her subjects to see their own reflections on their side of the window.

(via velvetant)

John Clang, Time

“A series of photographs taken at particular places in New York over a period of time, torn and reassembled, it involved recording a location to show the passing of time. There is a sense of intimate intricacy of how time moves, and how people, albeit in a different time, are actually closer to one another and traveling in the same shared space. I’ve always been intrigued by the constant subtle changes in my urban environment.” 

More here

(via lightsleepr)

Goodweather Collective, Roundabouts “What would a metropolis in the Pacific Northwest look like if urban planners at the turn of the 20th century recognized and exploited the spatial potential of existing old growth trees rather than their perceived resource potential? Employing techniques of photomontage and urban mapping Goodweather takes us on an anachronistic detour. While in the present city of Vancouver, the centre space of roundabouts is given over to a heap of dirt or various sanctioned treatments—community gardens, a monumental rock, and so on—in this “retroprojective” proposal, an alternative vision of the not-so-distant past is offered, one wherein forward-thinking city planners leave an old growth tree at the centre of each future roundabout. With this simple gesture we can envisage an entirely different city, one in which the massive trees are no longer a rarity but instead fundamentally define and shape our movement through the urban fabric of Vancouver. While the singular presence of each tree is in itself remarkable, their collective existence is a legacy comparable to that of Stanley Park, Vancouver’s beloved urban green-space. With this action the city becomes a forest, and the forest a city.” - Vancouver has already preserved some of its forest areas (almost all of this is second-growth), made easier to accomplish in a city that is only 150 years old. For example, there is a reasonably large tree in the middle of the road in an alley just down from Vancouver General Hospital; the Endowment Lands provide 14 square kilometres (over 3,400 acres) of forest right in the city; when the above-ground “Skytrain” network was expanded (Vancouver’s equivalent to other cities’ underground/subway/metro/u-bahn/MRT), tracks were built under ground at massive additional cost to preserve some wide grassy medians that run up one of the city’s main streets for 40-45 blocks; and, for the time being at least, there is no construction allowed above a certain altitude on the mountains surrounding the city. The second and last forward-thinking city planning decisions allow for summertime views from any beach in the city of forests turning purple as the sun sets. I would love to see this use of roundabouts. It might take some time - the oldest old-growth trees in what is now Vancouver were over 1000 years old. The last of the 1000 year old ones fell (naturally) in Stanley Park only in 2007. There are still 600 year old cedars to be found there - just look at the skyline of the park from the downtown core, find the tallest tree and make your way to its base. - Sort of related: Vancouver Museum and Archives’ flickr site, starting with the panoramas from the early 1900s. On the main page there are maps, street plans and many photographs.

Goodweather Collective, Roundabouts

“What would a metropolis in the Pacific Northwest look like if urban planners at the turn of the 20th century recognized and exploited the spatial potential of existing old growth trees rather than their perceived resource potential? Employing techniques of photomontage and urban mapping Goodweather takes us on an anachronistic detour. While in the present city of Vancouver, the centre space of roundabouts is given over to a heap of dirt or various sanctioned treatments—community gardens, a monumental rock, and so on—in this “retroprojective” proposal, an alternative vision of the not-so-distant past is offered, one wherein forward-thinking city planners leave an old growth tree at the centre of each future roundabout. With this simple gesture we can envisage an entirely different city, one in which the massive trees are no longer a rarity but instead fundamentally define and shape our movement through the urban fabric of Vancouver. While the singular presence of each tree is in itself remarkable, their collective existence is a legacy comparable to that of Stanley Park, Vancouver’s beloved urban green-space. With this action the city becomes a forest, and the forest a city.”

-

Vancouver has already preserved some of its forest areas (almost all of this is second-growth), made easier to accomplish in a city that is only 150 years old. For example, there is a reasonably large tree in the middle of the road in an alley just down from Vancouver General Hospital; the Endowment Lands provide 14 square kilometres (over 3,400 acres) of forest right in the city; when the above-ground “Skytrain” network was expanded (Vancouver’s equivalent to other cities’ underground/subway/metro/u-bahn/MRT), tracks were built under ground at massive additional cost to preserve some wide grassy medians that run up one of the city’s main streets for 40-45 blocks; and, for the time being at least, there is no construction allowed above a certain altitude on the mountains surrounding the city. The second and last forward-thinking city planning decisions allow for summertime views from any beach in the city of forests turning purple as the sun sets.

I would love to see this use of roundabouts. It might take some time - the oldest old-growth trees in what is now Vancouver were over 1000 years old. The last of the 1000 year old ones fell (naturally) in Stanley Park only in 2007. There are still 600 year old cedars to be found there - just look at the skyline of the park from the downtown core, find the tallest tree and make your way to its base.

-

Sort of related: Vancouver Museum and Archives’ flickr site, starting with the panoramas from the early 1900s. On the main page there are maps, street plans and many photographs.

Street Photography in the Age of Google (American Photographs) by Doug Rickard  When Google launched Street View in 2007, it was the company’s intent to map and document every street in the United States. Cars were dispatched into every city to drive every street and back road, using nine directional cameras mounted on the roofs of special cars. These cameras give us 360° movable views at a height of about 8.2 feet. There are also GPS units for positioning and three laser-range scanners designed for measuring up to 50 meters 180° in the front of the vehicle. Artist Doug Rickard analyzed tens or hundreds of thousands of Street Views in his search for perfect pictures, something he describes as containing an “apocalyptic-like brokenness.” Indeed, the height of the camera at 8.2 feet, while creating an aesthetic cohesion and uniformity of vision, adds a distinct feeling of “alienation” that Rickard employs. Unlike the making of street photos in the traditional sense, with Street View there is an oblivious-ness to the camera as it goes about its job with no feeling or emotion. In spite of this anonymity of machine, his images are—perhaps surprisingly—layered with empathy. Keep reading … - Related, photos taken by by one

Street Photography in the Age of Google (American Photographs) by Doug Rickard 

When Google launched Street View in 2007, it was the company’s intent to map and document every street in the United States. Cars were dispatched into every city to drive every street and back road, using nine directional cameras mounted on the roofs of special cars. These cameras give us 360° movable views at a height of about 8.2 feet. There are also GPS units for positioning and three laser-range scanners designed for measuring up to 50 meters 180° in the front of the vehicle. Artist Doug Rickard analyzed tens or hundreds of thousands of Street Views in his search for perfect pictures, something he describes as containing an “apocalyptic-like brokenness.” Indeed, the height of the camera at 8.2 feet, while creating an aesthetic cohesion and uniformity of vision, adds a distinct feeling of “alienation” that Rickard employs. Unlike the making of street photos in the traditional sense, with Street View there is an oblivious-ness to the camera as it goes about its job with no feeling or emotion. In spite of this anonymity of machine, his images are—perhaps surprisingly—layered with empathy.

Keep reading …

-

Related, photos taken by by one

(via debbieso)

Turner Prize* aka. Jason Cawood, Blair Fornwald and John Hampton from Other People’s Dreams. Since 2008, Turner Prize* has been conducting a series of performative interview sessions, asking participants to share a dream with them. Selected dreams are then staged and photographed. http://www.turnerprize.ca/dreams.html

Turner Prize* aka. Jason Cawood, Blair Fornwald and John Hampton

from Other People’s Dreams. Since 2008, Turner Prize* has been conducting a series of performative interview sessions, asking participants to share a dream with them. Selected dreams are then staged and photographed.

http://www.turnerprize.ca/dreams.html

Amélie Chassary & Lucie Belarbi, La Table from the series Huis-Clos, 2010 “Le Huis-Clos inscrit les personnages dans les rituels et les coutumes familiales. Notre approche photographique souligne le lien que chacun entretient avec les lieux qu’il occupe et les objets qu’il possède.” The idea here is that some places (like the family kitchen) have rituals that go along with that place. Through their photography and the costumes they design, Chassary and Belarbi aim to underline the links between people in the places they inhabit and people with the things they own.  http://www.ameliechassary.com/huisclos.html - I came across this photo among Fantomatik’s many sets of photographs, each dedicated to an individual photographer or theme. -

Amélie Chassary & Lucie Belarbi, La Table from the series Huis-Clos, 2010

“Le Huis-Clos inscrit les personnages dans les rituels et les coutumes familiales. Notre approche photographique souligne le lien que chacun entretient avec les lieux qu’il occupe et les objets qu’il possède.”

The idea here is that some places (like the family kitchen) have rituals that go along with that place. Through their photography and the costumes they design, Chassary and Belarbi aim to underline the links between people in the places they inhabit and people with the things they own. 

http://www.ameliechassary.com/huisclos.html

-

I came across this photo among Fantomatik’s many sets of photographs, each dedicated to an individual photographer or theme.

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Jeff Wall, A View from an Apartment (Vancouver), 2004-2005 Tate Modern write-up: “Photographed between May 2004 and March 2005 in an apartment specially rented for the purpose. Wall says he wanted to make a picture of an interior that included a view, something he had not done before. He asked one of the women in the picture to furnish the apartment and to live in it as if it were her own. Shooting occurred at various points during this time and the resulting photographs were then digitally combined. With A View from an Apartment, Wall achieves a remarkable synthesis of a number of his preoccupations: a commonplace interior opens onto an urban panorama; documentary material is treated with cinematographic dynamism; the everyday is heightened through composition and the effects of light; and a narrative is suggested but left incomplete.” Jeff Wall on his photography in the Guardian: “I reject the idea that I’m doing staged photography” - I don’t know why Jeff Wall would reject the idea that he’s doing staged photography. Perhaps it’s a contention designed to add some extra mystique to his work. I like the fact that photos by Jeff Wall, Gregory Crewdson, Astrid Kruse Jensen and others seem almost right but not quite. Our eyes can tell when something is staged in the way that even the best CGI has something slightly off about it - we just know. To me, it is the fact that they are staged but close approximations of the real world that makes them interesting. 

Jeff Wall, A View from an Apartment (Vancouver), 2004-2005

Tate Modern write-up:

“Photographed between May 2004 and March 2005 in an apartment specially rented for the purpose. Wall says he wanted to make a picture of an interior that included a view, something he had not done before. He asked one of the women in the picture to furnish the apartment and to live in it as if it were her own. Shooting occurred at various points during this time and the resulting photographs were then digitally combined. With A View from an Apartment, Wall achieves a remarkable synthesis of a number of his preoccupations: a commonplace interior opens onto an urban panorama; documentary material is treated with cinematographic dynamism; the everyday is heightened through composition and the effects of light; and a narrative is suggested but left incomplete.”

Jeff Wall on his photography in the Guardian: “I reject the idea that I’m doing staged photography”

-

I don’t know why Jeff Wall would reject the idea that he’s doing staged photography. Perhaps it’s a contention designed to add some extra mystique to his work. I like the fact that photos by Jeff Wall, Gregory Crewdson, Astrid Kruse Jensen and others seem almost right but not quite. Our eyes can tell when something is staged in the way that even the best CGI has something slightly off about it - we just know. To me, it is the fact that they are staged but close approximations of the real world that makes them interesting. 

Pavel Maria Smejkal, Fatescapes, 1989 Beijing, China (Original photo: Beijing near Tiananmen Square, 1989 and Tank Man http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcvaSnmqZ40) War, revolution, protest and conflict photographs with the details to put it all in context removed. Other photos by Smejkal from this series http://www.photolucida.org/cm_winners.php?aID=2004&CMYear=2010&event_id=11 Context for some of the other photos Spain 1936, Reichstag Berlin 1945, Iwo Jima 1945, Saigon 1968, Sudan 1994 - Smejkal: http://www.photoartcentrum.net/fatescapes1.html - Here is a lesser known photo of the Tankman

Pavel Maria Smejkal, Fatescapes, 1989 Beijing, China

(Original photo: Beijing near Tiananmen Square, 1989 and Tank Man http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcvaSnmqZ40)

War, revolution, protest and conflict photographs with the details to put it all in context removed. Other photos by Smejkal from this series http://www.photolucida.org/cm_winners.php?aID=2004&CMYear=2010&event_id=11

Context for some of the other photos Spain 1936, Reichstag Berlin 1945, Iwo Jima 1945, Saigon 1968, Sudan 1994

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Smejkal: http://www.photoartcentrum.net/fatescapes1.html

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Here is a lesser known photo of the Tankman

Andrea Galvani http://www.andreagalvani.com/work/higgs-ocean and http://www.colectiva.tv/wordpress/lang/en-us/andrea-galvani/ and http://www.andreagalvani.com/work/higgs-ocean

Andrea Galvani

http://www.andreagalvani.com/work/higgs-ocean and http://www.colectiva.tv/wordpress/lang/en-us/andrea-galvani/

and http://www.andreagalvani.com/work/higgs-ocean

(via zeroing-deactivated20110901)

Vito Acconci, Blinks, 1969 Acconci set himself the task of walking a continuous line down a street, holding a camera aimed away from him, ready to shoot. He tried not to blink. Each time he did, he snapped a photo.

Vito Acconci, Blinks, 1969

Acconci set himself the task of walking a continuous line down a street, holding a camera aimed away from him, ready to shoot. He tried not to blink. Each time he did, he snapped a photo.

Neil Goldberg, My Father’s Camry Filled with Leaves, 2009 “When my father died in 2007 I inherited his 2003 Toyota Camry. I held onto it for two years, even though it made no sense in New York City. Before finally letting it go, I took it to the park where I had taped my last video with him, filled it with leaves, and photographed it.”

Neil Goldberg, My Father’s Camry Filled with Leaves, 2009

“When my father died in 2007 I inherited his 2003 Toyota Camry. I held onto it for two years, even though it made no sense in New York City. Before finally letting it go, I took it to the park where I had taped my last video with him, filled it with leaves, and photographed it.”

Rachel, 18 years old, mixed-race (Russian and Japanese), had double eyelid surgery, was very quiet and after the surgery she became the kind of popular girl, every boy wants her, born nowhere, spoiled teenager and selfish, is going to study social politics at a renowned university and have a great career. Camila Angel, Sells clothes to live, party to survive, sometimes replace the guy from the gallery next door, divorced parents, her boyfriend is a Dj, lives in Brazil Julia, 27 years old, single, actress, born nowhere, lives in London, free spirit, lonely sometimes, loves to travel, cosmopolitan, mysterious and strong, lipstick lesbian. - The above from Lais Pontes’, Born Nowhere Project “The project Born Nowhere uses social media, as a tool of interaction, to capture how the change of a person’s facial features, expression or physiognomy, can affect the observer’s interpretation of someone. According to some theories of Personality (Carl Rogers, Skinner, Maslow), each individual is the result of the interplay of 3 factors: what the person is, what he or she wants to be and what others believe this person is. By using digital techniques, the photographer transforms facial characteristics giving herself a new personality. With no further information provided, the images are posted on Facebook and viewers are asked to provide their interpretation thereby creating a unique persona with its own name and characteristics. The description of this new person/persona is influenced by what psychoanalysts call “projection”, that is, the viewer’s background, reality and fantasies. What one sees is what one wants to see.” http://www.laispontes.com/#/born-nowhere/Born_Nowhere_Camila_Angel_web - Related - Who are you? -  Cindy Sherman Ari Versluis and profiler Ellie Uyttenbroek - individuals cliques Richard Renaldi, Touching Strangers  Gillian Wearing’s Family Album Mariana Abromović, Rhythm 0, 1974 Mike Mike, The Face of Tomorrow

Rachel, 18 years old, mixed-race (Russian and Japanese), had double eyelid surgery, was very quiet and after the surgery she became the kind of popular girl, every boy wants her, born nowhere, spoiled teenager and selfish, is going to study social politics at a renowned university and have a great career.

Camila Angel, Sells clothes to live, party to survive, sometimes replace the guy from the gallery next door, divorced parents, her boyfriend is a Dj, lives in Brazil

Julia, 27 years old, single, actress, born nowhere, lives in London, free spirit, lonely sometimes, loves to travel, cosmopolitan, mysterious and strong, lipstick lesbian.

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The above from Lais Pontes’, Born Nowhere Project

“The project Born Nowhere uses social media, as a tool of interaction, to capture how the change of a person’s facial features, expression or physiognomy, can affect the observer’s interpretation of someone.

According to some theories of Personality (Carl Rogers, Skinner, Maslow), each individual is the result of the interplay of 3 factors: what the person is, what he or she wants to be and what others believe this person is.

By using digital techniques, the photographer transforms facial characteristics giving herself a new personality. With no further information provided, the images are posted on Facebook and viewers are asked to provide their interpretation thereby creating a unique persona with its own name and characteristics. The description of this new person/persona is influenced by what psychoanalysts call “projection”, that is, the viewer’s background, reality and fantasies.

What one sees is what one wants to see.”

http://www.laispontes.com/#/born-nowhere/Born_Nowhere_Camila_Angel_web

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Related - Who are you? - 

Cindy Sherman

Ari Versluis and profiler Ellie Uyttenbroek - individuals cliques

Richard Renaldi, Touching Strangers 

Gillian Wearing’s Family Album

Mariana Abromović, Rhythm 0, 1974

Mike Mike, The Face of Tomorrow