Gallery: The Grisly, Fascinating History of Crime Photography
Rodolphe A. Reiss0101-PressImage l BOP l Rodolphe A. Reiss, 1925
A demonstration of Alphonse Bertillon’s metric photography method in 1925. The camera was fitted with a wide angle lens and positioned above the body.
Archives de la Préfecture de police de Paris. Courtesy of Préfecture de police de Paris, Service de l’Identité judiciaire.0203-PressImage l BOP l Alphonse Bertillon, Murder of Monsieur Canon, 1914
Alphonse Bertillon believed that by photographing the dead body from above he could achieve a “divine point of view” that could shed light on hidden clues. He took this photograph of Monsieur Canon, who lived on Boulevard de Clichy in Paris, on Dec. 9, 1914, shortly after his murder.
Archives de la Préfecture de police de Paris. Courtesy of Préfecture de police de Paris, Service de l’Identité judiciaire.0308-PressImage l BOP l Alphonse Bertillon, Murder of Madame Langlois, Puteaux case, 1905
Alphonse Bertillon used his metric photography system to photograph the murdered corpse of Madame Langlois on April 5, 1905.
Rudolphe A. Reiss, courtesy of Collection of the Institut de police scientifique de l’Université de Lausanne0410-PressImage l BOP l Rodolphe A. Reiss, Fingerprints found on oilcloth, 1915
This photograph by Rodolphe A. Reiss shows fingerprints on oil cloth, which he photographed while investigating the Jost Grand-Chêne case in Lausanne, France, on November 25, 1915.
Rudolphe A. Reiss, courtesy of Collection of the Institut de police scientifique de l’Université de Lausanne0511-PressImage l BOP l Rodolphe A. Reiss, Handkerchief used to strangle Madame Ducret, 1907
Forensics investigator Rodolphe A. Reiss took detailed photographs of objects at crime scenes. Here he documents a handkerchief used to strangle Madame Ducret. Beaumaroche, France, September 1907.
Archives centrales FSB et Archives nationales de la Fédération de Russie GARF, Moscou, copies publiées à partir des archives de l’Association internationale Memorial, Moscou.0613-PressImage l BOP l Stanislaw Rytchardovitch Budkiewicz, 1937
Stanislaw Rytchardovich Budkiewicz was arrested June 9, 1937, sentenced to death on Sept. 21, 1937, and executed that same day. He was among those killed by Joseph Stalin during the Great Terror.
Archives centrales FSB et Archives nationales de la Fédération de Russie GARF, Moscou, copies publiées à partir des archives de l’Association internationale Memorial, Moscou.0704-PressImage l BOP l Marfa Ilinitchna Riazantseva, 1937
This photograph of Russian citizen Marfa Ilinitchna Riazantseva was taken in 1937 by a photographer charged with creating portraits of those condemned to execution during Joseph Stalin’s Great Terror. She was executed shortly afterward.
Rudolphe A. Reiss, courtesy of Collection of the Institut de police scientifique de l’Université de Lausanne0812-PressImage l BOP l Rodolphe A. Reiss, Overlay of tool, 1912
Rodolphe A. Reiss created this overlay of a tool on the matching imprint of the left-hand plate in Yverdon on May 13, 1912.
Richard Helmer, courtesy Maja Helmer0902-PressImage l BOP l Richard Helmer, Face:skull Mengele superimposition, 1985
On June 6, 1985, investigators exhumed what they thought to be the body of Josef Mengele from a grave near São Paulo, Brazil. To prove his identity, German pathologist Richard Helmer mounted Mengele’s skull on a plinth and superimposed photographs of his face over it. They matched up perfectly, and DNA evidence later confirmed it was Mengele.
Richard Helmer, courtesy Maja Helmer1009-PressImage l BOP l Richard Helmer, Face:skull Mengele super imposition, 1985
Pathologist Richard Helmer superimposed photographs of Mengele's profile on his skull to confirm the skeleton's identity in 1985.
Chrisian Delage, Compagnie des phares et balises1114- PressImage l BOP, The courtroom during screening
The image is a still from the 2006 film *Nuremberg: The Nazis Facing Their Crimes*. It depicts the courtroom where the Nuremberg Trials took place during a screening of a one-hour film about the Nazi concentration camps submitted as evidence.
Susan Meiselas/Magnum Photos1206-PressImage l BOP l Grace A-South Koreme, North of Iraq, June 1992
Magnum photographer Susan Meiselas photographed this mass grave in the former village of Koreme, north of Iraq, in June 1992. She was there along with an international team of forensic experts to exhume the remains of victims killed by Saddam Hussein’s regime during his Anfal campaign against Iraqi Kurdistan.
Forensic Architecture in collaboration with SITU Research1307-PressImage l BOP l Decoding video testimony, MIranshah Pakistan, 2012
In June 2012, a 22-second video of a drone strike in Pakistan was broadcasted on MSNBC. Forensic experts were able to analyze each frame and study shrapnel patterns in the walls.
