Jean-Marie Simon’s Profile

Guatemala's Lost Photographs. By Jean-Marie Simon
29Oct2011
Guatemala's Lost Photographs.
This portfolio covers all sides of Guatemala's brutal civil war of the 1980s.
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In 1988, WW Norton published Guatemala: Eternal Spring, Eternal Tyranny, my book of color photographs and testimonies illustrating the height of the Guatemalan government's war against its citizens. The chapters covered each the three military dictatorships that had governed Guatemala from 1980 until 1986 including images of the effects of massive repression, “scorched earth” rural counterinsurgency, and the Army's occupation of four hundred rural villages.

In 2009, with a grant from the Soros Foundation and another from a private U.S. charity, I produced a second edition of the book. There were two goals: to publish Guatemala in Spanish and to use local resources to do so. In 2010, we published Guatemala: eterna primavera, eterna tiranía. With the exception of the digitization of the Kodachrome transparencies,  every aspect of the book -- English to Spanish translation, copy editing, Photoshop, design, and even printing -- was accomplished in Guatemala. We were particularly pleased to succeed on this score since it allowed us to spend the grant money in Guatemala and, just as important, it proved that a quality book could be produced in Guatemala.

We published one thousand copies. Guatemala: eterna primavera, eterna tiranía was number one on Guatemala's best seller list during Summer 2010, and it was number three overall for 2010. 

Guatemala was priced at $50 and was sold exclusively in Guatemala City. It sold out in eight months; I then re-invested 100% of the profits in a third student edition which will be published in January 2012. This third edition has a print run of four thousand copies. Our goal is to price it at a 75% discount off the true cost of production in order to render it affordable to students and Guatemalans of limited means. We also plan to donate 1,300 copies to public schools and universities together with a teacher's guide. ODHAG, the Archbishop's human rights office, is in charge of distribution. 

With a generous grant from the U.S. Embassy in Guatemala, we were also able to organize a traveling exhibit of the photos which included two sets of forty photos each that were shown simultaneously in two locales over an eight month period, ultimately encompassing almost twenty highland villages and towns in Guatemala. The exhibit was launched with a ribbon cutting ceremony presided by U.S. Ambassador McFarland at the National Palace last year and culminated at the San Carlos University in August 2011. It received new life when a human rights group used the photos in a highly visible street exhibit in downtown Guatemala City in September 2011. 


 

 

Jean-Marie Simon

3710 Corey Place NW Washington DC 20016

(202 ) 309-1467

jmsguate@gmail.com/www.primavera-tirania.com

Education

American University, certification in teaching.

Harvard Law School, J.D.

Fulbright scholar, Quito, Ecuador; post-graduate, academic research.

Georgetown University, Washington, DC, Bachelor of Science.

Awards and Memberships

a. Board Memberships

Member, Board of Directors, Guatemala Human Rights Commission/Washington DC.

b. Grants and Awards in 2010

Open Society Foundations, Documentary Photography-Audience Engagement Grant, Oct. 2010.

U.S. Embassy Grant (pursuant to Fulbright-Hays legislation), Oct. 2010.

Orchard House Foundation Grant, California, Sept. 2010.

Nomination, Wola-Duke University Book Award, June 2010.

Robert Shorb Grant, Washington DC, 2007.

c. Prior Grants and Awards

International Society of Combat Photographers, New York.

Selected Professions Fellowship, American Association of University Women.

Bunting Institute Grant, Harvard/Radcliffe.

W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund, New York (special mention).

Art Directors Magazine Award, New York.

American International Public Service Advertisement Award, New York.

Published Work

      a. Books + Publications

  • Guatemala: eterna primavera, eterna tiranía, Spanish language edition, 2010. Reviews (partial listing): Revista D (Prensa Libre), June 13, 2020; elAcordeón (elPeriódico, June 20, 2010);  Revista (Diario de Centro América), June 25, 2010; editorials, elPeriódico, June 21 and July 1, 2010;  La Hora, June 22, 2010.

  • Guatemala: Eternal Spring, Eternal Tyranny (WW Norton, New York + London, 1988); 20,000 copies sold.

            Reviews (partial listing): New York Times Book Review (C. Capa, 1988); Los Angeles   Times Book Review (cover) (V. Perera, 1988); Times Literary Supplement (R. Gott,   London, March 25-31 1988); Vogue magazine (“Books People are Talking About,”   February 1988); Creative Camera (A. Hopkinson, London, October 1988); American      Photographer (V. Goldberg, July 1988).

  • Human Rights Watch publications: The CERJ in Guatemala (co-authored, 1988);  Civil Patrols in Guatemala (1986); The Group for Mutual Support (1985); Guatemala: A Nation of Prisoners (1984) (contributor).

       b.  Photographs Published in Books of Photography

  • War Torn: Survivors and Victims in the Late Twentieth Century, Recorded by 31 Photographers (S. Vermazen, Pantheon, 1984).

  • Eyewitness: 150 Years of Photojournalism, (ed. R. Lacayo and G. Russell, Time/Oxmoor House, Inc., 1990).

  • On The Line: The New Color Photojournalism (A. Weinberg, Walker Art Center; University of Pennsylvania Press, 1986) (reviewed in Time magazine R. Lacayo, 1987).

      c. Exhibitions of Work (group exhibits noted)

      ·    Fotografiska, Stockholm, February 2011.

      ·    “eterna primavera, eterna tiranía,” traveling exhibit, Guatemala 2010-2011,   sponsored by U.S. Embassy in Guatemala

  • ·     Esa historia a la vuelta de la esquina(group), Compañía de Jesús, AECID, Antigua, Guatemala.

      ·     History of Guatemala, GuatePhoto, Museum of Modern Art, Guatemala City.

      ·     Eternal Spring Eternal Tyranny, ExCéntrico, Guatemala.

      ·     Homeless Women, O.K. Harris Gallery, NY.

  • Bag Ladies, Impressions Gallery, York and London.

  • Homeless Women, Artist’s Call, Central Hall Gallery.

  • Guatemala: Testimonial, Cayman Gallery,New York + Side Gallery,Newcastle England.

  • War Torn, Cooper Union (group), New York.

  • The Photographers’ Gallery, London.

  • On the Line: The New Color Photojournalism, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (group). and the Carnegie-Mellon University Art Gallery, Pittsburgh.

  • Ollantay Center for the Arts, New York City.

 d. Speaking Engagements (partial)

  • Overcoming Legacies of Violence, David Rockefeller Center, Harvard University, October 2010.  

  • Guatemala: eterna primavera, eterna tiranía, Centro Cultural de España (Embassy of Spain), June 2010.  

  • Filgua book fair, Guatemala, July 2009. 

  • Conversatorio, Centro Cultural de España, Guatemala, June 2009. 

  • Writing Under Extreme Circumstances, together with Gloria Emerson,Frances Fitzgerald, and Amy Wilentz, Manhattan Theater Club, New York City, March 1992.  

  • Intercultural Center, Georgetown University, Washington, DC, March 1989.

  • Committee on Latin American and Iberian Studies, Harvard University and Harvard Law School, February-March 1989 and 1990.

  • Beyond Photography, Atlanta Seminar on Photojournalism, October 1989.

  • The New School, New York City, and Boston University, 1989.

  • Illustrious Women Series, 92nd Street “Y,” New York, New York 1988.

  • Carolina Inter-Task Force on Central America, June 1988. 

  • Minnesota Lawyers International Human Rights Committee,Walker Art Center, 1988.

  • Guest lecturer, Mission Covenant Church, Uppsala, Sweden, May 1987.

       e. Publications Describing Work and Photographs

  •  Through the Eyes of Jean-Marie Simon (chapter), G. Lovell, Guatemala: A Beauty that Hurts, University of Texas Press, 2010.

  • Recuerdos de una fotógrafa en época de conflicto, J. Masaya, Amiga/Prensa Libre, 2009.

  • El retrato de la eterna tiranía, P. Hurtado, elPeriódico, Guatemala, October 2008.

  • Indios 3, por Jean-Marie Simon (chapter), E. Galeano, The Book of Embraces, Siglo Veintiuno, Spain, 2001.

  • Pièces à Conviction, Photo Magazine (Paris), M. Grenouiller, Feb./March 1990.

  • Out on a Limb, SLR Photography (London), June 1988.

  • Outfront, Mother Jones, N. Wiener, 1989.

  • The Making of an Activist, New York Woman, C. Siebert, Dec./January 1988.

  • The Talk of the Town, The New Yorker, L. Weschler,  July 29, 1985.

  • Infinite Variety- The Class of 1991, Harvard Law Bulletin, Winter, 1989.

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