Team USA (l to r): Coach Krzyzewski; Dwight Howard; Chris Bosh; Tayshaun Prince; Carlos Boozer; LeBron James; Carmelo Anthony; Kobe Bryant; Michael Redd; Jason Kidd; Dwyane Wade; Deron Williams and Chris Paul

Ramping up to tomorrow’s epic opening of the OLYMPIC GAMES in Beijing, and the impending roundball battle we’ve all been waiting for, we’re happy to report that in a very unexpected move, one of our favorite young photographers, TARYN SIMON has been commissioned to shoot an official portrait of the US men’s basketball team for the occasion. Chosen by NIKE to capture an artistic view of the 12-man team made up of Kobe Bryant, Tayshaun Prince; Dwight Howard; Chris Bosh; Carlos Boozer; LeBron James; Carmelo Anthony; Michael Redd; Jason Kidd; Dwyane Wade; Deron Williams and Chris Paul led by coach Mike Krzyzewski, the stark photo represents the artist’s first foray into sports photography. A 33-year-old Guggenheim Fellow who has exhibited her photography in an array of prestigious international galleries and museums, including Gagosian Gallery and the Whitney Museum, Simon is renowned for her obsession with revealing hidden and inaccessible American stories in her work, most notably the highly acclaimed portrait series “The Innocents,” that documented cases of wrongful conviction in the United States and her recent body of work, “An American Index of the Hidden and Unfamiliar.” See more of Simon’s photography after the jump. HAVE A LOOK:

Portrait of the artist… 

TARYN SIMON’S “THE INNOCENTS” SERIES:
(documenting former convicts exonerated of their crimes)

Charles Irvin Fain
Scene of the crime, the Snake River, Melba, Idaho
Served 18 years of a Death sentence for murder, rape, and kidnapping.

LARRY MAYES
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.

TIM DURHAM
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.

Hector Gonzalez
At home, Brooklyn, New York, the week of his homecoming. Served 6.5 years of a 15-to-life sentence for murder.

Larry Mayes
Scene of arrest, The Royal Inn, Gary, Indiana
Police found Mayes hiding beneath a mattress in this room. He served 18.5 years of an 80-year sentence for rape, robbery and unlawful deviate conduct.

TARYN SIMON’S “AN AMERICAN INDEX OF THE HIDDEN AND UNFAMILIAR” SERIES:

White Tiger (Kenny), Selective Interbreeding
Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge and Foundation
Eureka Springs, Arkansas
Kenny was born to a breeder in Bentonville, Arkansas on February 3, 1999. As a result of inbreeding, Kenny has mental retardation and significant physical limitations.

Hymenoplasty, Cosmetic Surgery
Fort Lauderdale, Florida
The patient in this photograph is 21 years old. She is of Palestinian descent and living in the United States. In order to adhere to cultural and familial expectations regarding her virginity and marriage, she underwent hymenoplasty.

Nuclear Waste Encapsulation and Storage Facility, Cherenkov Radiation Hanford Site, U.S. Department of Energy
Southeastern Washington State
Submerged in a pool of water at Hanford Site are 1,936 stainless steel nuclear waste capsules containing cesium and strontium.

Death-Row Outdoor Recreational Facility, “The Cage”
At the Mansfield Correctional Institution in Ohio, death-row inmates are allowed one hour of outdoor recreation per day. There is only a chin-up bar inside the segregated cages, and inmates are not allowed to bring anything in with them.

The CIA, Art Collection
In this unexpected juxtaposition, Simon captures an image of fine art on display at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia. Included in the art collection are a bronze bust of George H.W. Bush and these two pieces by post-World War II painter Thomas Downing.

Playboy, Braille Edition
The National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, a division of the Library of Congress, maintains a free national library of braille materials. Playboy was selected on the basis of demonstrated reader interest; Congress funds free distribution of the braille edition.

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 7th, 2008 at 8:37 pm and is filed under Basketball, News, Olympics, Photography, art. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.