Crime Scene Photography in England, 1895–1960

Abstract

This article discusses the development of techniques and practices of murder crime scene photography through four pairs of photographs taken in England between 1904 and 1958 and examines their “forensic aesthetic”: the visual combination of objective clues and of subjective aesthetic resonances. Crime scene photographs had legal status as evidence that had to be substantiated by a witness, and their purpose, as expressed in forensic textbooks and policing articles, was to provide a direct transfer of facts to the courtroom; yet their inferential visual nature made them allusive and evocative as well. Each of four pairs of photographs discussed reflects a significant period in the historical evolution of crime scene photography as well as an observable aesthetic influence: the earliest days of police photography and pictorialism; professionalization in the 1930s, documentary photography, and film noir; postwar photographic expansion to the suburban and middle class, advertising images of the family and home; and postwar elegiac landscape photography in the 1950s and compassion shown to infanticidal mothers. Crime scene photographs also demonstrate a remarkable shift in twentieth-century forensic technologies, and they reveal a collection of ordinary domestic and pastoral scenes at the moment when an act of violence made them extraordinary.

Forensic examination of the hand

“…Combining the use of biometrics and photography, which has a long history in the investigation of crime (Bell 2018), the use of anatomical comparison techniques has assisted investigators to identify perpetrators, whilst also safeguarding children who are at risk of harm. Based on the UK experience, this article gives an oversight and introduction to the techniques involved, details the research base that these are grounded in, and concludes with a case study that demonstrates the process in practice.…”

Forensic Facial Comparison: Current Status, Limitations, and Future Directions

“…Depicting faces [ 1 ], facial anthropometry [ 2 ], and facilitating crime scene investigations [ 4 , 5 ] have relied on the use of photography in a forensic context almost since its development [ 1 ]. Probably the most recognized use of photography in a forensic setting, and its derivative in the form of video recording, is surveillance.…”

L’usage du document dans Signs of a Struggle de Clare Strand

“…L'ensemble des images de la série est présenté comme relevant de l'art, alors que certaines images proviennent de l'archive : l'artiste conduit le spectateur, perdu dans un problème inextricable, à l'incrédulité. Photography in England, Amy Bell évoque le fait qu'« en tant que sources historiques, les photographies de scènes de crime sont constamment revues en fonction du contexte dans lequel elles sont visionnées et en fonction du regard du spectateur », mais elle a conscience que si son propre regard d'historienne « peut percevoir des vérités médicolégales à leur surface », il n'est pas possible de « fixer et de stabiliser de manière définitive les couches sous-jacentes de signification affective situées en-dessous 17 . » Affective mais aussi esthétique car, malgré l'ambition de neutralité propre à ce type de photographie, les images finissent par connaître un jour ou l'autre un destin esthétique.…”