HIDDEN IN PLAIN SIGHT

TARYN SIMON'S 'AMERICAN INDEX OF THE HIDDEN AND UNFAMILIAR'

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It is tempting to view Taryn Simon’s ‘American Index of the Hidden and Unfamiliar’ as a corrective to, or reparation of, a post-9/11 world of suspended civil liberties and sinister governmental machinations: a way of turning the camera back upon those who surveille, directing an illuminating flash onto the covert operations of contemporary American biopolitics. Yet what immediately strikes the viewer is how few of these photographs engage any topic that might be linked straightforwardly to the excesses of the Patriot Act. For example, we are presented with an image of cables erupting from a linoleum floor in a sinisterly barren room, but this is no exposé of illegal wiretapping. Rather, it is a room in VSNL headquarters, New Jersey, through which the sub-marine cables that carry over sixty million simultaneous voice conversations are routed across the Atlantic. If anything, the image is a meditation on how blasé our acceptance of remarkable feats of technology has become—warrantless wiretapping included. Similarly, our access to the CIA is limited to a photograph of the Abstract Expressionist art works on display in the lobby of the organisation’s headquarters at Langley. The only skeletons in the closet of the FBI are the corpses used for forensic research at the so-called ‘body farm’—the University of Tennessee’s Forensic Anthropology Research Facility. We imagine the agents and officers benefitting from this research as so many Clarice Starlings rather than Fox Mulders.

What I want to suggest, however, is that in failing to offer us hard evidence of nefarious dealings in Washington or Gitmo or any number of shady foreign states mobilised as hosts for extraordinary renditions, what Simon’s series indexes is a version of American secrecy—the hidden, the... The rest of this article is available to subscribers of Eyeline

Hymenoplasty

Cosmetic Surgery, P.A.

Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

The patient in this photograph is 21-year-old woman of Palestinian descent, living in the United States. In order to adhere to cultural and familial expectations regarding her virginity and marriage, she underwent hymenoplasty. Without it she feared she would be rejected by her future husband and bring shame upon her family. She flew in secret to Florida where the operation was performed by Dr. Bernard Stern, a plastic surgeon she located on the internet.

The purpose of hymenoplasty is to reconstruct a ruptured hymen, the membrane which partially covers the opening of the vagina. It is an outpatient procedure which takes approximately 30 minutes and can be done under local or intravenous anesthesia. Dr. Stern charges $3,500 for hymenoplasty. He also performs labiaplasty and vaginal rejuvenation.

Forensic Anthropology Research Facility, Decomposing Corpse
University of Tennessee
Knoxville, Tennessee

The decomposing corpse of a young boy is studied by researchers who have recreated a crime scene.

The Forensic Anthropology Research Facility, popularly known as The Body Farm, is the world’s chief research center for the study of corpse decomposition. Its six-acre plot hosts approximately 75 cadavers in various stages of decomposition. The Farm uses physical anthropology (skeletal analysis of human remains) to help solve criminal cases, especially murder cases. Forensic anthropologists work to establish profiles for deceased persons. These profiles can include sex, age, ethnic ancestry, stature, time elapsed since death, and sometimes, the nature of trauma on the bones.

Corpses were first brought to the facility in 1980 as donations from the state (unclaimed bodies) or from families donating on behalf of the deceased.