Art Documents: The Politics of Visibility in Contemporary Photography

Abstract

Archival inkjet print, 37 1/4 x 44 1/2 inches, edition of 7 + 2 APs Contraband (2009) utilizes a strategy of non- representation to depict the highly-surveilled site of customs interrogation at the American border by revealing images of items confiscated from border crossers and subsequently documented by the artist. [...]the practices of both Simon and Paglen articulate a delicate dialectic between visuality and opacity, one operative in the revelation and concealment of information through visual means. But clearly this is not the case today.