THE
INNOCENTS
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SPACE Gallery proudly presents The Innocents, a stunning collection of portraits by photographer Taryn Simon. These photographs show the faces and voices of the wrongfully convicted, people imprisoned for years before finally proving their innocence. Gathered from across the United States, this collection exposes a broken judicial system where even the most fundamental principles of justice are subverted.
While mug shots and photo arrays are used to condemn and imprison these innocent men and women, Simon has turned the camera around to document these victims of mistaken identity and perverted justice. In Simon’s interviews, these men and women confront the paradox of innocence and imprisonment, the inability to recover the years stolen from them, and the states’ unconscionable refusal to compensate them or ease their traumatic transition to civilian life.
In the summer of 2000 while on assignment for The New York Times Magazine, Simon began photographing men and women who were wrongfully convicted, imprisoned, and subsequently freed from death row. This inspired her to investigate photography’s role in the criminal justice system. She says:
Photography’s ability to blur truth and fiction is one of its most compelling qualities. But when misused as part of a prosecutor’s arsenal, this ambiguity can have severe, even lethal consequences. Photographs in the criminal justice system, and elsewhere, can turn fiction into fact. As I got to know the men and women that I photographed, I saw that photography’s ambiguity, beautiful in one context, can be devastating in another.
Simon worked in conjunction with The Innocence Project, a nonprofit organization founded by leading civil rights attorneys Peter Neufeld and Barry Scheck. The Innocence Project is responsible for most of the post-conviction DNA exonerations in the United States today.
This compelling exhibition of Simon’s photographs and interviews with the wrongfully convicted confronts the failings of the criminal justice system and the use of the death penalty in this country, a topic currently under close scrutiny. The images and voices of The Innocents mark this historic turning point in America.
10.19.2006 | Thurs
Documentary Film: After Innocence
7:30p, $8 /$6 for members, all ages
AFTER INNOCENCE tells the dramatic and compelling story of the exonerated - innocent men wrongfully imprisoned for decades and then released after DNA evidence proved their innocence. The film focuses on the gripping story of seven men and their emotional journey back into society and efforts to rebuild their lives. Included are a police officer, an army sergeant and a young father sent to prison and even death row for decades for crimes they did not commit. The men are thrust back into society with little or no support from the system that put them behind bars. While the public views exonerations as success stories - wrongs that have been righted - AFTER INNOCENCE shows that the human toll of wrongful imprisonment can last far longer than the sentences served.
The film raises basic questions about human rights and society's moral obligation to the innocent and places a spotlight on the flaws in our criminal justice system that lead to wrongful conviction of the innocent.
AFTER INNOCENCE is directed by Jessica Sanders, an Academy-Award nominated filmmaker (“Sing!”), and is produced and written by Jessica Sanders and Marc Simon in association with The American Film Foundation, an Academy® and Emmy®-award winning production company. Simon attended the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law and was a student at the Innocence Project, an experience that inspired the idea for this film.
10.27.2006 | Fri
An Evening with Maddy deLone and David Shepard
7:30p, $5 suggested, all ages
David Shepard served 10 years of a 30-year sentence for a crime he didn't commit. DNA evidence and legal assistance from The Innocence Project helped him prove his innocence. SPACE hosts Shepard with Maddy deLone, Executive Director of The Innocence Project, in conjunction with the gallery exhibit "The Innocents," on display through November. Shepard and deLone will talk about their experiences and the issues surrounding wrongful convictions in the United States today.
11.4.2006 | Sat
Michael Keck: "Voices in the Rain"
Produced with Add Verb Productions
$12 / $10 for students, seniors and SPACE members
Michael Keck is will share stories collected
during workshops with prison inmates across the US in a Performance Dialogue
with excerpts from his multi-media solo play "Voices in the Rain."
Voices in the Rain has its origins in an incident. While Keck was visiting
his parent’s home, he surprised a burglar who had been repeatedly
ransacking
the premises. Describing the intruder to the police, he realized he was
also describing himself. Astounded, he set out to learn how his life and
those of other (some of them personally remembered) black men involved
in crime and consequently imprisoned diverged. Out of this investigation
came this powerful piece in which Keck portrays a
variety of individuals. In "Voices", Keck assumes a range of
characters, often through seemingly slight but profoundly altered changes
in props and costumes.
The presentation will be followed by a community dialogue.
