| Melanie Pullen’s collection of more than 100 photographs that comprise “High Fashion Crime Scenes” is based on vintage crime scene images that 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. |  |
Melanie Pullen
Melanie Pullen’s collection of more than 100 photographs that comprise “High Fashion Crime Scenes” is based on vintage crime scene images that 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-50s, 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 with which to work.
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 re-dressing what are deeply disturbing events.
To create “High Fashion Crime Scenes,” Pullen at times enlisted the help of up to 60 people per shoot: set builders, makeup artists, models, stylists and stunt crews, among others. Her models have included the actresses Rachel Miner and Juliette Lewis. Many important fashion houses have lent or donated clothes and jewelry for shoots, among them Prada, Bvlgari, Gucci and Chanel. For each image, she prepares elaborate storyboards, which may include the original photographic source, sketches of the final shot and myriad production notes. Following preproduction, she works one-on-one with a commercial laboratory to achieve the final result and a print size of up to ten feet. As a result, the viewer’s attention initially focuses more on the setting than on the actual “scene.”
