A Living Man Declared Dead and Other Chapters is a major monograph by Taryn Simon, published by MACK, documenting a four-year photographic and research project in which she traced and recorded global “bloodlines” shaped by law, politics, violence, and inheritance.

The book is structured as 18 “chapters,” each built from three components: a systematic sequence of portraits of family members, a central text panel outlining the historical and political narrative, and a series of “footnote” images that expand or fragment the story through additional visual evidence.

Across the chapters, Simon examines cases in which identity is defined—or erased—by external systems: state bureaucracy, conflict, religion, and accident. Subjects include individuals affected by land disputes, abductions, state violence, and official misrecognition, alongside more obscure or accidental genealogical narratives.