"Well written, well photographed, well laid out and beautifully printed. It could be considered a landmark example of modern journalism in which eyewitness writing and photographic talent combine with meticulous research to produce a book of contemporary history."—Cornell Capa, New York Times Book Review
For twenty years government repression in Guatemala has been the most insidious and the least acknowledged in the western hemisphere. Virtually every Guatemalan has lost friends, relatives, or colleagues. There have been some 100,000 killings and 40,000 "disappearances." Still, Guatemala remains anonymous, overlooked by much of the press, and its troubles denied outright by the United States government. For the past six years, Jean-Marie Simon has been photographing people and reporting events from this hauntingly beautiful and remote land. Her text and pictures tell the story of a people imprisoned, particularly the Mayan Indians, whose lives have been so torn apart by political strife. This is a beautiful book; yet at the same time it is incredibly disturbing in its portrayal of a civilization violated by the army, police, and paramilitary government forces.
Jean-Marie Simon is a graduate of Georgetown University and Harvard Law School.
Simon was a Fulbright scholarship and was awarded the Bunting fellowship (Radcliffe/Harvard).
Simon's photographs have appeared in Time, The New York Times, The New Republic, Harper's, Geo, Vogue, and Newsweek. She has had solo exhibits at O.K. Harris Gallery (NY), The Photographers' Gallery (London), and Parco (Tokyo). Simon's photographs were also part of a widely-reviewed, 10-photographer group exhibit, "On The Line: New Color Photojournalism," which also included photographers Susan Meiselas and Gilles Peress.
Simon's book, Guatemala: Eternal Spring, Eternal Tyranny (WW Norton, NY and London), sold 20,000 copies.
In June 2010, Guatemala: Eterna Primavera, Eterna Tiranía, the Spanish-language edition of the original edition, will be published. The new edition, which was digitized at National Geographic and at Estudio/A2 in Guatemala, will contain 150 color photographs, including 50 new photos. Copies will be available for sale through Sophos bookstore and through its online sales department.
