Crime Scenes: The Architecture of Suspicion

© Marcel van Beek - Image from the Crime Scenes: The Architecture of Suspicion photography project © Marcel van Beek - Image from the Crime Scenes: The Architecture of Suspicion photography project © Marcel van Beek - Image from the Crime Scenes: The Architecture of Suspicion photography project View all images ↓
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A psychological study of suspicion: engaging with priming and perception, this series transforms mundane settings into sites of apparent distress. The work exploits visual voids, challenging viewers to discern between projection and hidden reality.

"Crime Scenes: The Architecture of Suspicion" is a photographic series that transforms mundane, everyday settings into sites of apparent distress. Through tight framing, the removal of the horizon, and a cool, monochromatic green-blue palette, the images create a claustrophobic atmosphere where nothing 'happens' within the frame. Instead, the entire narrative occurs within the viewer’s mind.

The work engages with priming and perception:

  • The Projected Lie: By using the title as a 'priming' tool, the series exploits our tendency to fill a visual void with suspicion. A plastic barrel or a garden shelter becomes an imagined piece of evidence. We see what is not there, becoming victims of our own stereotypical attributions.

  • The Overlooked Truth: Conversely, the work questions our reliance on visual clichés. By searching for 'obvious' signs of a crime scene, we risk becoming blind to actual delinquency that hides behind the veil of the 'normal' and the inconspicuous, especially within the social domestic sphere.

Narrative Structure:

The proposed sequence of 12 works functions as a psychological downward spiral. It begins at the Facade, representing the deceptive surface of civic order, before moving through increasingly confined spaces. We pass through the Shelter and the Transit point, descending into the subterranean dread of the Laundry Room and the Cellar, finally reaching the innermost sanctum of the Veil (a stark bathroom). The journey concludes at the Forest—the classic 'site of discovery'—leaving the viewer alone with their own projections in the unwirtliche nature.

The series is not about documenting crime, but about the architecture of our (dis)trust. It challenges the observer: are we inventing a crime scene where there is none, or are we so distracted by our imaginations that we fail to see the reality hidden in plain sight?

Technical Note: The effect is achieved entirely in-camera through strict composition. Post-processing is limited to a monochromatic shift and the addition of grain to enhance the sense of unease.

Production Years: 2016 – 2025 (Final Edit 2026)

Project Status: Recently completed. While the primary photography took place between 2016 and 2020, the final conceptual curation, monochromatic colour grading, and the 12-piece grid structure were finalised in early 2026 for this submission.

This project is a candidate for PhMuseum 2026 Photography Grant

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© Marcel van Beek - Image from the Crime Scenes: The Architecture of Suspicion photography project
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01 The Facade. The series opens with a study of fragile domesticity. The rigid grid of the tiled wall and the unblinking eye of the window establish a facade of normalcy. It is an invitation to look closer, suggesting that the order of the orderly facade of respectability might be nothing more than a thin veil covering an underlying tension.

© Marcel van Beek - Image from the Crime Scenes: The Architecture of Suspicion photography project
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02 The Barrel. A nocturnal encounter with a functional object, captured from a jarring, tilted perspective. Under the shroud of darkness and a shifting palette, the distorted horizon transforms a simple rain barrel into a vessel of suspicion. The slight tilt serves to unbalance the viewer, echoing the psychological instability of a mind primed for dread.

© Marcel van Beek - Image from the Crime Scenes: The Architecture of Suspicion photography project
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03 The Barrier. With the introduction of barbed wire and stone, the architecture of suspicion becomes physical. This boundary acts as a visual manifestation of exclusion and control. It raises the silent question of what is being protected—or what is being kept from public view.

© Marcel van Beek - Image from the Crime Scenes: The Architecture of Suspicion photography project
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04 The Shelter. A study of a garden shed and its makeshift veranda. What usually serves as a place of retreat and leisure is here re-contextualised into a fragile, claustrophobic outpost. The shadows trapped beneath the corrugated roof and the weathered textures of the structure suggest a state of provisional concealment. We project a narrative of clandestine activities.

© Marcel van Beek - Image from the Crime Scenes: The Architecture of Suspicion photography project
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05 The Trace. The beginning of mental forensics. A simple mark or shadow on the ground is reinterpreted as a significant trace. By isolating this detail, the photograph exploits the viewer’s narrative urge to reconstruct a struggle or a movement that may never have occurred.

© Marcel van Beek - Image from the Crime Scenes: The Architecture of Suspicion photography project
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06 The Evidence. A collection of scattered, mundane objects in a damp environment. The composition mimics the aesthetic of a crime scene awaiting its forensic labels. It highlights the 'Art of Lying' by presenting a neutral arrangement that feels like the chaotic aftermath of an interrupted event.

© Marcel van Beek - Image from the Crime Scenes: The Architecture of Suspicion photography project
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07 The Inventory. The threshold of intervention. Tools of everyday labour are captured in a state of provisional abandonment. Within the context of the series, these instruments of work are easily mistaken for indicia of a crime, heightening the tension just before the imagined arrival of authorities.

© Marcel van Beek - Image from the Crime Scenes: The Architecture of Suspicion photography project
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08 The Transit. The focus shifts to a site of potential movement. The entrance to a vehicle or a loading bay suggests the clandestine transfer of the unseen. It acts as a narrative bridge, moving the suspicion from the static environment to the dynamic possibility of an 'abduction' or 'disposal'.

© Marcel van Beek - Image from the Crime Scenes: The Architecture of Suspicion photography project
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09 The Laundry Room. A descent into the domestic subterranean. The laundry room—a space of daily routine—is reimagined as a site of profound anxiety. The interplay of shadows and hanging fabrics creates a labyrinthine space where the 'unseen' of the domestic sphere resides.

© Marcel van Beek - Image from the Crime Scenes: The Architecture of Suspicion photography project
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10 The Cellar. The architecture is stripped to its barest essentials: a stark, windowless corner and a single, exposed light source. The clinical coldness of the aesthetic deliberately evokes the atmosphere of an interrogation cell or a clandestine basement chamber. Here, the 'ordinary' is most effectively weaponised against the viewer's perception.

© Marcel van Beek - Image from the Crime Scenes: The Architecture of Suspicion photography project
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11 The Veil. A glimpse into a stark, utilitariansed bathroom. The poor tiling and the interplay between frosted glass and a heavy, dated curtain create a physical and visual barrier to transparency. This obscuration suggests the innermost sanctum of the private sphere as a site of potential domestic tragedy. The image challenges the observer to distinguish between safety and site of violation.

© Marcel van Beek - Image from the Crime Scenes: The Architecture of Suspicion photography project
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12 The Forest. The sequence concludes at the classic 'site of discovery'. By returning to the untamed woods and a simple fence, the narrative comes full circle. It leans into deep-seated crime fiction tropes, leaving the viewer with a lingering sense of unease and the realisation that the 'crime scene' exists primarily within their own imagination.

© Marcel van Beek - Image from the Crime Scenes: The Architecture of Suspicion photography project
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14 Installation Mock-up. Digital exhibition simulation of the 'Crime Scenes' series. The proposed installation presents the 12 works as a rigorous 2x6 grid, creating a rhythmic and immersive 'wall of suspicion'. By displaying the squares in this formal density, the consistent blue-green tonality and the lack of horizons merge into a cohesive architectural experience.