The Republicans

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The Republican Party held its national convention in New York City, less than three miles from where the World Trade Center once stood.

Five thousand party delegates gathered in a heavily fortified Madison Square Garden to nominate George W. Bush for a second term as president. They were greeted by more than 400,000 protesters, who marched outside as part of the largest demonstration in American history ever to confront a national political convention, and by an unprecedented 15,000 journalists who arrived to cover the event.

Steve Simon’s photographs captured the scripted performances on stage, the media pundits who lined the arena, and the uninhibited displays of free speech that filled Manhattan's streets. His work illuminates a fateful time in the history of a divided nation, challenging us to look beyond the carefully managed pageant that appeared on the evening news--and to gauge for ourselves the state of American democracy.

"Inside that arena, Simon is an unusual type of spy, one who records information others regard as irrelevant. He sneaks behind the broadcast booths, and frames a shot of the wiring

pinned to the news anchors’ backs. Instead of jostling with other photographers for position, he includes the throng as his subject. When everyone rises, eyes fixed on the stage, Steve Simon looks the other way, observing how captivated faces fade into the dark recesses of the auditorium.The election is over. Yet we live still in an age when public debate is carefully choreographed, under a government that prizes control. In this setting, in these times, Simon’s remain renegade images."

Mark Engler