Cold Trail - Forensic Aesthetics
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Dates2015 - Ongoing
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Author
People leave traces, in both their closer and wider surroundings, some innocent and some criminal. Reading these traces correctly from photographs is impossible without context - words, accounts, testimonies. Without words, every picture is suspect.
These photos were made in crime scenes, generally at private properties. Crime scene photos of physical circumstances and objects are used as evidence during the investigation and court proceedings. A crime scene investigation happens once and cannot be repeated. From the aspect of police acquisition and appropriation, the veracity of the image can be rediscovered again.
While we more often think of murder, lesser crimes give us much broader insight into society, leaving behind less identifiable means or methods which compel greater interpretation. These images are simultaneously sad and mundane yet exciting and mysterious. Mysterious because beyond these intimate glimpses of strange physical surroundings, another stranger, the perpetrator has already rearranged the location in their own way. Together we try to reconstruct an actual event based on mutilated clues. Where a trace has disappeared is as important as what left behind.
Regarding my methodology the creation of these photos exclude any fictional elements.