Customer Reviews

Shots in the Dark: True Crime Pictures

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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.

... 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."

First the positive. The photos in this book are amazing and intense, dating from the beginning of the age of photography to the late 1990s. The terribly violent photos from the first half of the 20th century are a good reminder that the present day didn't invent violent crime. The skill of some of the photographers and the quality of many of the photos is also amazing.

In addition to actual crime scene photos, there are photos of criminals, suspects, inmates, victims ranging from the extremely small time to the infamous (Berkowitz, Manson, Bundy).

My main complaint with this book is that it is all over the place. It's hard to find a unifying theme other than all the photos have something to do with crime, and many are extremely gory and sensational. There's a lot of text but it rarely matches up well with the photos and basically seems like a long winded justification for publishing a bunch of really gross photos.

NOt that I have anything against gross photos, but it seems hypocritical to dress them up in psedo-scholarly meditations on crime and punishment when you know that's not REALLY what people are reading the book for.

The book's cover does note that it is based on a Court TV documentary, which may explain the scattershot mix of themes and narration; if it is intended as a tie-in or supplement to other material it is more understandable, but it would be preferable if the book could stand on its own.

Nevertheless, if you are interested in crime scene photography or the history of crime depiction, this is worth a look.

"Shots in the Dark"is a book of crime-related photographs...Many of them are quite explicit and full of gore..I cannot for the life of me understand why the two people responsible for this volume,so-called"photo historian"Gail Buckland,and"authority"on photography Harold Evans seem to think that we require thier windy ramblings in order to "understand"the"meanings"behind these pictures..I mean,really !Is it that hard to understand,for example,that the woman pictured on page 50 is dead,and was the victim of a murderer?Not that the captions are unwelcome...no...it is the essay work,especially the stuff written by Evans,that grates..Buckland likes to publish books which feature photographs of the dead,the more grotesque and mutiliated the better...In her earlier volume,entitled"Looking at Death" she features a picture of the mutiliated corpse of Benito Mussolini and his galpal Clara Pettachi after they had been lowered from the beam in the town square where they had been hung by thier feet after execution...Il Duce's face is horrible to behold,and yet Buckland rhapsodises about the"meaning"of this picture,as if it has any apart from shock value and/or historical content...I cannot help but think that most who buy that book,or "shots in the dark"will mainly do so to be shocked or titilliated...a few will do so for the historical aspect...a very very few will do so in order to be helpled by either Buckland or Evans to grasp the alledged"meanings"associated with these pictures..
As mentioned earlier,the text by Evans is especially annoying...Evans apparently sees some cosmic meaning in these pictures..A picture of cops arresting someone...a pair of 1920s men who fell,or were pushed down an elevator shaft..By golly,if we look hard enough we can discern the secrets of the universe in these pictures,or so Evans seems to imply...BALDERDASH !
There has recently been a spate of such books,which would suggest that the public is perhaps tired of the fake gore,blood and guts to be had on both the big and the little screens,and wants to look at something real...Maybe ,like the long ago romans,we yearn for admission to the arena,where some real gladiators can kill one another,or some real christians can be eaten alive for our pleasure,and ,for most of us,these pictures take the place of the afore-mentioned entertainments?...
If you want some explicit real-life photographs,many involving murder and torture,then this book will fill the bill...but if you want the answer to the meaning of life,or even what these pictures are supposed to"mean",go somewhere else,because Buckland and Evans haven't got a clue.

Although light on detail, this book, based on a Court TV documentary, provides a good general overview of the history of true crime photography. Some of the images are compelling - though they can almost all be acquired elsewhere. For example, the images of early 20th century New York homicides are culled from Luc Sante's Evidence. However, if you're looking for an introduction to the Morbid Side of Photography, this is a great place to start. The book is divided into six general sections: Crime Scenes, Killers, Sensational Cases (such as infamous thrill killers Leopold and Loeb and John List who murdered his entire family in 1971), Retribution (such as the lynching of three rape suspects in San Francisco), Gangsters (such as Bugsy Siegel), and Presidential Assassins (such as Lee Harvey Oswald). An endlessly entertaining, if lightweight, morbid concoction.

It wasn't as detailed as Death Scenes but still gives it a great run for the money. I'd recommend it for anyone who is fascinated with forensics. If given the chance, I would still buy it again.

If you are entertained by the disturbing, this book is great for keeping your sick mind entertained and your idle hands out of entrails. I would also recommend this book to anyone who isn't afraid to look through the eyes of a crime photographer of times past and appreciate the gall it took to actually take some of these pictures. The text in this book is not that fantastic, but it would be very hard to find words more interesting and memorable than the faces in these photographs. So...jeah...good (picture) book.

Better photos, better writing. If a photo was interesting, the author didn't give much information. In fact she might go on and on about a crime for which there wasn't a photo. If a picture was really interesting, she gave extremely limited info. And I couldn't figure out who or what the 4th picture of the Lizzie Borden axe murder was (author didn't bother to specify - if it was the father's, someone took off his clothes and moved his body onto a different piece of furniture for some reason). All I could gather throughout was that she believes crime is society's fault - not the perpetrator's.

The photos are great and the text is interesting, but I wasn't expecting so much history. This is definitely a historical look at crime photos with an occasional contemporary pic.