Shots in the Dark: True Crime Pictures FROM OUR EDITORS
It might sound macabre, but Gail Buckland's compilation of crime scene photographs offers readers a glimpse into history through the lens of a camera. Published in conjunction with Court TV's tenth anniversary, and a documentary of the same title, Shots in the Dark explores the development of forensic photography and its role in shaping criminal investigations, news reporting, and the emotions of the public. Arranged into sections, this volume examines serial killers, presidential assassins, gangsters, and others who have upset the social order. Famous crimes, committed by Lizzie Borden, Patty Hearst, John Dillinger, and scores of others, are included among the hundreds of photographs and illustrations.
FROM THE PUBLISHER
"Shots in the Dark journeys into the unsettling world of crime photography. Featuring many rare and never-before-seen images, this heavily illustrated book sheds new light on the role of crime photography in our history and in our culture." From nineteenth-century mug shots and wanted posters to Weegee's famous crime-scene photographs to the notorious surveillance film of Patty Hearst, Shots in the Dark highlights key developments in the history of crime photography. These are pictures we see once and never forget: an autopsy photograph of Lee Harvey Oswald; the bodies of Lizzie Borden's parents, photographed in the room where they were slain; celebrity mug shots, including Jane Fonda and Bill Gates; and pictures of Nicole Brown Simpson's home in the aftermath of her murder.
FROM THE CRITICS
Publishers Weekly
This is a stark exploration, in archival photography and crisp commentary, of the full range of criminal darkness. Prepared by Buckland (who teaches at Cooper Union and is coauthor of The Magic Image: The Genius of Photography, etc.) with commentary by Evans (The American Century), the volume commemorates the 10th anniversary of Court TV along with a documentary series of the same name, which begins airing this month. The book is organized by subject matter ("Crime Scenes," "Killers," "Sensational Cases," "Retribution," "Gangsters," "Presidential Assassins"), while the authors' essays and captions provide deeper discussion of forensic photography's development and evolution in the American consciousness: the '40s noir landscapes of tabloid photographers like Weegee; shocking images from the public domain, like the surveillance pictures of Patty Hearst committing robbery with the SLA; or bootlegged autopsy photos of Dillinger and JFK. The photos are comprehensive and well selected, offering a plethora of jarring images, human horror and guilty thrills. Snapshots of notorious and obscure killers provide concrete portraits of the banality of evil, while the rapist/murderer Harvey Glatman's photos of his bound victims evoke safety's fragility. As this book owes a measure of its flavor and some specific images to earlier anthologies of crime photography, notably Luc Sante's Evidence (1992), it arguably represents an incursion of once-marginal "crime culture" into the mainstream. Buckland and Evans offer an elegantly rendered coffee-table volume of depraved indifference and needless sorrow. 200 b&w photos (Oct.) Forecast: Fans of Law and Order, viewers of the Court TV series and othermainstream crime buffs will line up to buy this slick, attractively produced collection. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.
Library Journal
If photo historian Buckland (Cooper Union) intended this to be an insightful analysis of forensic photography, she fails by falling victim to the medium's powerful potential for spectacle. The cover photo of two bloodied male corpses lying in the detritus at the foot of an elevator shaft heralds the book's gruesome content. Buckland's disavowal of voyeurism ultimately rings false. Instead of expanding upon the brief history of crime photography that appears early in the book, she saturates the pages with a repellent tabloid admixture of visuals, devoid of any organizing principle other than shock value. Among the outsized photos are views of the hacked carcasses of Lizzie Borden's parents and the composting skeleton of the Lindbergh baby. Unlike Luc Sante's Evidence (LJ 10/1/92), a haunting collection of antique crime scene photos with a quasi-anthropological focus upon a specific time and place (Manhattan, 1910-19), Buckland's book is adrift between such non sequiturs as Cheryl Crane's 1957 "perp walk," O.J. trying on the glove, and 19th-century hangings. The inevitable coda to this Court TV-sponsored paperback comes with close-ups from President Kennedy's autopsy, the apotheosis of the brutal iconography celebrated here. Not recommended. Douglas F. Smith, Oakland P.L. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.
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