Commemorating the Innocence Project’s 30th Anniversary

Join PS1 to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the Innocence Project and the publication of an expanded 20th anniversary edition of Taryn Simon’s The Innocents, which documents the stories of individuals who were incarcerated for violent crimes they did not commit.

A conversation with Peter Neufeld, Barry Scheck, and Marvin Anderson, moderated by Mary Baxter, will explore the work of the Innocence Project, the history and impact of Simon’s The Innocents, the malleability and unreliability of memory, and the misuse of photography in criminal investigations. Herman Atkins, Calvin Johnson, Chris Ochoa, and Tyra Patterson –four individuals whose wrongful convictions are detailed in Simon’s The Innocents –will tell live unscripted stories about what they see–some more than 20 years later–when they look at the photos in which they’re featured from The Innocents.

First published in 2003 and exhibited at MoMA PS1 that same year, Simon’s The Innocents features photographs of forty-six exonerees at a site that came to assume particular significance following their wrongful conviction: the scene of misidentification, the scene of arrest, the alibi location, the scene of the crime. The new edition includes previously unpublished images; a new introduction by Innocence Project co-founders Peter J. Neufeld and Barry C. Scheck; an essay by professor and curator Nicole R. Fleetwood based on a conversation with criminal legal and social justice activist Tyra Patterson; and a new section featuring original police reports, court transcripts, and correspondence detailing the procedures behind many of the misidentifications and wrongful convictions documented in the book.

The Innocence Project is an independent non-profit organization that fights for fair, compassionate, and equitable systems of justice for everyone; frees the innocent; and prevents wrongful convictions. Their work is guided by science and grounded in anti-racism. MoMA PS1 has had a longstanding relationship with the Innocence Project since Taryn Simon’s exhibition The Innocents in 2003.