High Fashion Crime Scenes (Photographs by Melanie Pullen)

Melanie Pullen's collection of more than one hundred photographs that comprise High Fashion Crime Scenes is based on vintage crime-scene images she mined from the files of the Los Angeles Police Department, the County Coroner's Office, and other primary sources. Drawn to the rich details and compelling stories preserved in the criminal records, she began re-enacting the crime-scenes, outfitting the "victims" (her selected models) in current haute couture, and photographing them in her staged settings.
Self-taught and raised in a family of photojournalists, publishers and artists, she began the present project after seeing a copy of Luc Sante's 1992 book Evidence (1914-1919) about crime scene photos from the New York Police Department. While the disturbing stories behind the pictures intrigued Pullen, she was more interested in the minute details: the material that made up the images and told a story. Prior to the mid-1950's the nature of criminal photographs was fundamentally different from their present, clinical form. Given the complexity of cameras earlier in the century, most crime scene photographers had both artistic and professional experience. With an eye for composition, lighting and drama, photographers like Eugene Atget, Alexander Gardner, Jacob Riis, and Arthur Fellig (a.k.a. Weegee) produced crime photos that were artistic and documentary, evocative of tabloid illustrations or film noir. Inspired by such images, Pullen conducted extensive research in the LAPD archives that yielded a wealth of vintage sources to work with. Photographs from the series employ the power of fashion to disguise and distract, or to draw our attention away from the otherwise gruesome subjects. While representations of violence-including its causes and effects-have always dominated visual culture, artists have long employed the subject to comment on greater social values and taboos. Pullen herself has noted that she takes aim at society's glamorization of violent acts and crimes by literally redressing what are deeply disturbing events.
Following preproduction she works one on one with a commercial laboratory to achieve the final result and print size of up to ten feet. As a result, the viewer's attention intitally focuses more on the setting than the actual "scene". Melanie Pullen was born in New York City in 1975; she currently lives and works in Los Angeles, CA. She has been profiled in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Beaux Arts, Artweek, ELLE, BorderCrossings, The Independent on Sunday Review, Flaunt and Vogue Japan. She was also profiled in May 2006 in Nylon Magazine and Book LA in a twelve-page feature.

Music by Zazou/Budd, 'Johnny Cake'.

"It disappeared that year.
And isn't it true we glide it past grace?
Glide it past at the speed of surprised light.
One neon dump after the other;
All glittery and stained with the mantle of bad decisions.
Way too smart, we were way too smart.
Then like perfume from old to new vapour, we got thinner an thinner;
Till we flew like Orson's fingers in that flick.
Isn't it true, Johnny Cake, we were too smart?
We were way too smart..."

Category:

Education

Tags:

• High
• Fashion
• Crime
• Scenes

[Eellenne]

cant watch this

[asphaltpizza]

Melanie Pullen's Crime Scene Series is now on display at MOCA Jacksonville until November 6.

[GiriahGozRawr]

Beyond beautiful.<3

[sacrificialtotem]

fantastic



[DeavomSee]

Disturbing and beautiful

[Vertigo1871]

L'immagine a 0:11 mi ricorda le atmosfere dell'Overlook Hotel. Inquietante il testimone silenzioso a 2:07. Grande omaggio hitchcockiano a 2:14! La luce che nasce da quelle gambe a 2:22 è conturbante cosi' come le calze rosse a 2:37: da fiaba gotica.

[Teocalli75]

Ouh la ! Je ne connaissais pas.... Découverte bouleversante. Teo

[almacattleya]

Trovo particolarmente affascinante la foto a 1:02 così come quella a 3:04. Però dal mio punto di vista aggiungere un tocco modaiolo toglie molto fascino alle foto.