Through the Lens Darkly

There is a macabre relationship between the photographer of criminals and their dirty deeds and the viewer.  Like rubbernecking at the scene of a highway accident, we find it impossible to look away.  Photojournalists and those who ply their trade in more sedate surroundings understand this fascination and have either built successful careers around it or included it as part of their artistic oeuvre:

Dick Hickock, Murderer, Garden City, Kansas, April 15, 1960

Richard Avedon

1960

Hickock, along with Perry Smith, carried out the infamous Clutter family killings in Holcomb, Kansas in 1959 and gained great notoriety as the subject of Truman Capote's book In Cold Blood.

And law enforcement agencies have not been above exploiting photography for their own purposes.  All of this is explored at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in the exhibit Crime Stories:  Photography and Foul Play and is examined in this fine New Yorker piece by Alexandra Schwartz.

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