Images of conviction – photography and the police

Both police and photography are lawful forces: one through its attempts to maintain order and the other through its technique and power to bear witness. It is no wonder, then, that they came together and that investigative work quickly came to view the photo as a valuable tool for determining facts and establishing evidence.

The Federal Police thus preserves thousands of photographic plates that date from the beginning of the 20th century. A tiny portion of the treasures from this reserve is exhibited here. Scenes of crimes or accidents, images of reconstructions and autopsy documents share space in the search for the truth. These exceptional archives – which can be viewed for the first time – will be exhibited in relation to a section of pieces by artists, notably Andres SERRANO (US) and his famous series “The Morgue”, Angela STRASSHEIM (US), who was once employed as a “forensic photographer” by the US police, as well as Corinne MAY BOTZ (US), who worked from crime scenes reconstructed in miniature by the American criminologist Frances Glessner Lee in the 40s and 50s. Used as training material to refine future investigators' sense of observation, these inanimate and moving crime scenes are photographed from different angles and mirror the images from the Bertillon Fund, which has been loaned for the occasion by the Prefecture Museum of Paris.