Forensic Photography

I am just going to do a little background research into forensic photography. Here is a definition I found for forensic photography and I thought explained it very well. "Forensic photography, sometimes referred to as forensic imaging or crime scene photography, is the art of producing an accurate reproduction of a crime scene or an accident scene using photography for the benefit of a court or to aid in an investigation. It is part of the process of evidence collecting. It provides investigators with photos of victims, places and items involved in the crime. Pictures of accidents show broken machinery, or a car crash, and so on. Photography of this kind involves choosing correct lighting, accurate angling of lenses, and a collection of different viewpoints".

Taking image of the object like it says above has to be clear and show the object from every angle to show the object well. With bright lighting and colour to get the best image as possible.

"Crime or accident scene photographers usually capture images in colour but also in black and white. Colour pictures are generally preferred because colour may be an important aspect of the trace evidence.

Various forces and different countries have different policies in regards to 35 mm film or digital photography. There are advantages and disadvantages to both. Conventional film photographs, even using disposable cameras, have a high resolution, enabling great enlargement should details in a picture need closer examination.

 Pictures from surveillance cameras are a growing source of evidence for courts, as are pictures taken by bystanders on mobile phones. The former are being used increasingly at accident black spots, and bystanders may take pictures of events when no police officer or investigator is present, but yet may be critical to a case."

I found this set of information interesting that the image are usually in colour and that I found colour had a better affect with my feedback from my class as they thought it showed the viewer more information. I also found it interesting that it talks about surveillance and how that can be used as evidence in a accident or crime.  

After recently doing work on surveillance in critical practice i wanted to refer to some things i learnt. In the lesson we read  "Louise Wolthers, self-surveillance and virtual safety". And i found it very interesting as it talked about a particular artist called Hasan Elahi and his web project called "Tracking Transience". The lesson  linked to the documentary lecture as for example Walker Evans watched the people and then recorded it. Another piece of work i found interesting which relates to surveillance is work by Sophie Calle. http://tiffobenii.wordpress.com/surveillance/sophie-calle/. Sophie very first work involved following people around Paris. She soon discovered that observing the behavior and actions of these strangers provided information with which to construct their identities. I think this is really interesting pieces of work how she had sat and watched people and observed there actions and picked a moment when to take the best image. Another piece of work which i am going to look further more into is work by Taryn Simon. Who takes images of objects that have been taken off people at customs. 

Here are some examples of forensic photography the pictures are taken fromhttp://www.deviantart.com/photography/?q=forensic+photography and http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=forensic%20photography.