“Scene of the Crime”: it makes one think of Weegee and other journalists armed with flashbulbs, roaming the city streets at night, chasing calls from the local police radio. The PDNB gallery is offering a more historical look at the subject, providing an overview of the history of forensic photography and American law enforcement in the 20th century.
The exhibition features a large collection of anthropometric portraits, developed by Alphonse Bertillon in 1882 and quickly adopted by the British and American police, with detailed measurements of each suspect and descriptions of their physical characteristics, which allowed for swift identification.
Browsing the exhibition, the visitor becomes aware of the social and ethnic changes that have taken place in America and its legal system. We are able to follow the major stories of the 20th century, with headline-making gangsters like the legendary Roger Touhy, the brutal Albert Anastasia, and witnesses like Leonora Halsey.
Also on display are less glamorous photographs of suicides and other deaths, as well as selections from all of Jeffrey Silverthorne’s career: border arrests, prostitutes (a recurrent theme in the photographer’s work since the 1980s) and morgues, where he photographed the corpses of murder victims, stitched back after their autopsies like sacks of bread. The most recent series in the show was shot in 2009 by Teun Voeten in the Mexican border town of Ciudad Juarez. Since the 1990s, it has been repeatedly ranked the murder capital of the world.
Laurence Cornet
Scene of the Crime II
Until June 22th, 2013
PDNB Gallery
1202 Dragon Street, Ste. 103
Dallas, Texas 75207
USA
Tél. : +1 214 969 1852
