Burden of Proof: The Construction of Visual Evidence

Fascinating exhibition at the Photographers’ Gallery looking at how photography and film has been used as factual evidence in courtrooms.

It takes eleven cases studies starting with the invention of metric photography of crime scenes in the 19th century. This is a protocol for representing crime scenes using an overhead camera on a tripod which takes an image of the whole body of the victim as well as how it lies in its environment. These were grisly pictures but drew you in.

It then looked at Rodolphe Reiss who introduced the idea of taking close up pictures of evidence which allows you to look in more detail at the object and often shows things which can’t be seen by the naked eye. Reiss went on to be the first chair of forensic science.

Most moving was a series of pictures from the Great Terror in Russia from 1937-38 in which 750,000 were killed and 7000,000 were deported. These pictures were mug shots taken against a neutral background of those who were found guilty, many of who were executed shortly afterwards. These pictures are an awful democratic record of these people which was supressed but has come to light again since and used as evidence of this period of history. The pictures where shown rolling on a big screen, showing the picture first then placing the person’s name, age, occupation and ‘crime’ next to the picture. It gave you a chance to look at and engage with the image before you knew more about it.

Also interesting was a section about John Ford’s film of the concentration camps which was made for and used at the Nuremberg trials. It showed not only how the film was made but also how it was shown at the trail, illuminating the box where the accused were sitting so their reactions could be seen. 

The other case studies were also really including the Gaza book of destruction which recorded and documented the destruction caused by an Israeli attack in 2008 and the effect of photographing the Turin Shroud. There was just too much interesting stuff to write about!

Closes on 10 January 2016.

Review
Guardian

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