Luce Lebart is a photography historian and the director of the collections of the French Society of Photography. She has worked on several exhibitions, including Preuve par l’image in 2002 at the Fondation Claude Verdan, and on the book Le théâtre du crime “the theater of crime”.
The inventor of forensic photography, Alphonse Bertillon, is known for having created “anthropometry,” portraits of individual’s face and profile, which were intended to identify repeat criminal offenders. Less familiar is the principal of metric photography, which he developed beginning in the early 20th century.
Luce Lebart: In 1903, Bertillon, then head of the photography department at the French police headquarters, invented a scientific protocol to document crime scenes: metric photography. In addition to identifying the victims’ bodies, metric photography was meant to accurately document and reproduce the scenes where the crimes were committed, both for the police investigation and the trial. Bertillon understood the benefits of the immediacy of the images, especially its ability to provoke emotion. Photographs can have a moral influence, both on the judges, and on the alleged perpetrators by inciting them to confess.
Read the full article on the French version of L’Oeil de la Photographie.
EXHIBITION
Images à charge, la construction de la preuve par l’image
From June 4th to August 30, 2015
Le BAL
6, impasse de la Défense
75018 Paris
France
http://www.le-bal.fr
Exhibition is producted by Picto Lab.
BOOK
Images à charge, la construction de la preuve par l’image
Éditions Xavier Barral & Le BAL
22 x 28,5 cm
240 pages
280 photographs B&W
45€
http://exb.fr
