Shots in the Dark: True Crime Pictures [Paperback]

Gail Buckland (Author), Harold Evans (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 2001

When shots ring out, photographers shoot back. Their images can startle, inform and serve as witness. Mundane and profound, gruesome and compelling, crime photographs are, for better or worse, part of our world. Featuring many rarely or never-before-seen images, this book aims to shed new light on the role of crime photography in our history and in our culture. They are pictures which are often seen once and then never forgotten: an autopsy photograph of Lee Harvey Oswald; the bodies of Lizzie Borden's parents, photographed in the room where they were slain; pictures of balistic equipment used to determine Sacco and Vanzetti's guilt and of O.J. Simpson wearing shoes that match the footprints at the murder scene. Photographic historian Gail Buckland has sought out the most provocative and informative images and provides illuminating commentary throughout the book.

Editorial Reviews

From 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 other mainstream crime buffs will line up to buy this slick, attractively produced collection.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From 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 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Bulfinch; 1st edition (October 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0821227750
• ISBN-13: 978-0641769634
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 9.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #487,176 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not for the faint of heart, October 12, 2001

By 

S. Thesing (Savage, MN United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Shots in the Dark: True Crime Pictures (Paperback)

I've always been fascinated by true crime and forensics, and was quite amazed that this book had such uncensored, graphic photos. Crime scene photos, autopsies, serial killers, mob deaths, the pictures go all the way back to the late eighteen-hundreds and Lizzie Borden, and the text was very informative as well. It's definitely not the kind of book I would leave out on the coffee table, but for crime buffs it's a real must have.

17 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars must have for true crime buffs, November 13, 2002

By 

Manfred Zeichmann (Austria) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Shots in the Dark: True Crime Pictures (Paperback)

The content of this book is often quite shocking and surely not for the squeamish. I am aware that many people will dislike it. But in order to understand crime and its effects on society one has to face reality. The ugly face of reality and not only crime as a figure.

The book starts with an excellent introduction by Harold EVANS "Looking Crime Squarely in Its Disturbing Eye", followed by an essay by author Gail BUCKLAND about the development of forensic photography and the creator of the mugshot, the frenchman Alphonse BERTILLON in particular. I found this chapter especially compelling.
The rest of the book consists of crime pictures with short captions by the author, many of them are unfortunately rather brief. With only one or two exceptions all featured photos are black and white. Many of those shot in the period from 1930-1950 have a certain film noir look due to sharp contrast. Many pictures are not easy to look at particularly those shot at homicide scenes. And you'll see a lot of homicide scenes. There is a picture taken by a surveillance camera during the April 1999 Columbine school shooting, a police officer looking in despair at the body of a girl shot at the 1984 Mc Donald's massacre in San Ysidro, the corpse of slain actress Sharon TATE, crime scene photographs of stabbed Nicole SIMPSON, lots and lots of unknown victims of murder...As mentioned before, this is sometimes not easy to look at.
Another chapter is about punishment. An horrifying account of lynch justice is given; according to the author it was common practice in the last decades of the 19th century to send photographs of lynchings to friends and relatives. I didn't know that. You see photographs of the last public execution in the US, which took place in 1936, convicts in prisons, an arrested man tied to a restrainment chair etc. A very compelling chapter but I have to add that BUCKLAND shows way too much compassion for convicts in her captions commenting the pictures. Undoubtedly a convict can not be denied his human rights, but we have to bear in mind that many of them committed unspeakable acts of violence and too much compassion for such people is highly inappropriate.

I especially liked the chapter about presidential assassinations. There are portraits of president LINCOLN's assassin's co-conspirators and photos of their execution on the gallows. The most infamous political murder of the last century, the assassination of president KENNEDY in Dallas, is depicted in a very detailed manner with many rare and often cruel photos ( e.g. the slain president on the autopsy table and the corpse of Lee Harvey OSWALD after a postmortem was conducted) accompanied by insightful captions, which convey more information in some sentences than many non-fiction books in hundreds of pages.
A selection of celebrity mugshots (including Frank SINATRA, Jane FONDA and Bill GATES) adds a little curiosity and fun to an otherwise sombre and shocking book. Especially FONDA and GATES look incredibly ludicrous in their mugshots.
While I generally found SHOTS IN THE DARK a great book I didn't like two chapters very much, because they are so "overpublished". These were about gangland world and infamous cases. I mean how often did you see photographs of the O.J.SIMPSON trial? How often did you see Al CAPONE's not so friendly features?
But these are only minor complaints. This book is a must have for every true crime fan. It could also be of interest for people who like death shockumentaries.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Okay, so its gory ..., February 14, 2002

By 

Kathleen L. Helms "Kate" (Ohio, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Shots in the Dark: True Crime Pictures (Paperback)

... but what a wonderful book! The photography in this book is so fantastic, that any person who admires excellent photographic skill will not be able to remain dispassionate. The topic (crime, criminals, accidents, homicides, etc.) is well represented, both in words (and the authors thankfully belong to the less is more school) and imagery. Buried here and there in the book you'll find an image and some commentary that makes a particularly relevant statement presented in a decidedly understated yet compelling fashion. For example, page 68, Elmer Fanter. The shot is of a young kid (16) who's standing in a cell, holding the bars and looking completely bewildered. He and his pals had murdered a man who had the temerity to come to the aid of a woman the lads were robbing. Of this shot, the author makes the statement (in part): "He and his friends saw no violent movies and were not subjected to inappropriate scenes on television, and those hands clenching the bars of the prison door never moved a mouse in a violent video game."