I have to say that this year, I was rather disappointed with the Deutsche Borse Prize final selection. Being one of the most prestigious prizes in photography, to me only one of the photographers presented left me with the feeling that the body work encompassed both visual beauty as well as being educational, which is what I believe photography should be about. Photographers are consistently trying to strive towards reflecting today’s culture/issues through their medium the best they can. It is ofcourse also used as a form of recording history; showing the way in which time passes and we as photographers record that history pausing it for a moment in time. Photography can also be aesthetically challenging, in that sometimes an image will show its value through the choice of light, colour and sometimes that is all that matters – the mood that is conveyed through that one image. All the photographers who were chosen have checked all these boxes, however the only one that stood out for me was Taryn Simon. Her work showed such a thorough body of research, material and was so current and unique – showing us glimpses of life in American culture, which remains hidden: thought about but unspoken. It really makes you question and rethink how much is it that we really know, and really don’t. It is worth looking through the series chosen for the show and here below is some information about the artist herself:

Taryn Simon (b. 1975 in New York) assumes for her project “An American Index of the Hidden and Unfamiliar” the dual role of shrewd informant and collector of curiosities, compiling an inventory of what lies hidden and out-of-view within the borders of the United States. She examines a culture through careful documentation of diverse subjects from the realms of science, government, medicine, entertainment, nature, security and religion. Through text and image, the work underscores the complicated relationship between a photograph and its context. The visual is processed aesthetically and then re-defined by its text. Her sometimes ethereal, sometimes foreboding compositions, shot over a four year period, vary as much as her subject matter, which ranges from radioactive capsules at a nuclear waste storage facility to a black bear in hibernation. In examining that which is integral to America’s foundation, mythology and daily functioning, Simon creates a collection of works that reflect and reveal a national identity.