Statement

Statement 

The portfolio is called Documenting Crimes by Lia Jackson, it is about crime that have happened in my local area ,I have created  work based four crimes that took place in and around the Greater Manchester area. I want to be a forensic photographer ultimately as a career so looking at crimes and crime scene evidence is what I am interested in. However I would have to complete extra educational courses to become a forensic photographer. Therefore I have another career option which is to work as photojournalist for a newspaper or television  doing features and pieces on crime.

 The crimes featured in this portfolio are murder, sexual abuse, drowning  and a missing person ( which later led to murder ). 

After looking  at professional photographers who look at crime and evidence I took real interest in Paul Seawright’s Sectarian Murders  body of work, he documented Ira sectarian murders that took place inn the 1970s. The images show the crime scene where the murderers took place.But these images are accompanied by the newspaper article about the murder that took place at the place photographed. However Paul Seawright removed what sector of Christianity the victims were removed  so the viewers who see the images view the images a way that is not prejudicial.Henry Iddon ‘A Place to go’ created similar work but photographed what on the surface a serene mountain scenes. But the text revealed that these were crime scenes where mountaineers died.

Using both these practitioners as inspiration I created images based on Lindsay Jo Rimmer , The Moors Murders  and Rochdale Sex scandal. All of these images are accompanied by text to reveal what the landscape and street image really is. 

Lindsay Jo Rimmer 13, went missing from her hometown of Hebden Bridge in 1994, if created work based on the timeline leading up to her going missing. I photographed her journey from her street where her home is to her meeting with her  mother to her visit the shops where she vanished.I chose to shoot each images at different angle similar to Paul Seawright tot related interest in this section and also to make the work look like documentary styled images. It turned out that she was murdered and her body was found in the Rochdale Canal a year later in 1995. However it wasn't until this year that her killer was found. Therefore I didn't include a picture of the canal where she drowned as it wasn’t until recently that there was news on how she drowned so far away from where she went missing.


Also as well as looking at practitioners like Paul Seawright and Henry Iddon, I looked at previous work that have created before. In International Markets and Contexts I as part of a group created work about the mysterious 'The Pusher,' this mysterious serial killer has being labelled responsible for many drownings across Greater Manchester waterways. The strange element of this case was the lack evidence, there was no sign of a struggle or  fight they victims drowned with no resistance. This was odd to me so for that module I created evidence using the water from the same waterways that victims drowned in to create footprints and hand prints by waters edge to suggest some presence of life by the water’s edge which was lacking in the actual crime evidence. I thought the images I created in that module would fit in well with my crime portfolio I have produced.However I  re-shot the footprint images in a crime scene style by using a flash gun to pick up every detail that could be vital in an investigation.

The third section of my portfolio is The Moors Murderers is one of the most well known Serial murderers ever, Ian Brady and Myra Hindley between 1963 to 1965 killed and buried 5 children on Saddleworth Moor. Pauline Reade, John Kilbride, Keith Bennett, Lesley Ann Downey and Edward Evans where the victims where sadly killed and buried on Saddleworth Moor , all but Keith have been found. The images I created for The Moors Murders are without the text are normal landscape images but with text reveal the terrible event that happened on the moors. The first two images are off the road and the saddle worth sign to explain the crime that took place at the moors and revealed the road Myra Hindley waited in the car for Ian Brady whilst he disposes of his victims. She stayed on the road so and pretend to be broke down so if anyone asked what she was doing she could explain why. The last two images are of the moors themselves. The text featured with these images reveal the victims John Kilbride, Lesley Ann Downey and Edward Evans on one image I couldn’t find the exact the location of where the four victims where found so I showed a wide angle of the moors instead.The last images is an another moors image with text that states  that Keith Bennett have not been found to this day.

The last section of images in my portfolio is about the Rochdale sex scandal that took place in 2008, there was Twelve men were convicted of sex trafficking and other offences including rape, trafficking girls for sex and conspiracy to engage in sexual activity with a child, on 8 May 2012. The sexual abuse happened mainly in 2 takeaways in Heywood ,Rochdale. The images I produced are of the welcome to Rochdale sign which has the information  about the Rochdale sex scandal.The sign image was chosen as it is supposed to welcome people to Rochdale. By having text that reveals this hyenas crime it makes the signs welcoming nature feel wrong. The other images are of the 2 takeaways in question which were Balti House and Tasty Bites. Due to the nature of the crime committed at these two takeaways are no longer in existence. I photographed the location of the takeaways as they are now. Balti House is still empty and no one is trading from this address. Unlike the Tasty Bites Location which is currently a butchers.I don’t reckon the owner of the butchers knows about the past business as having a butchers in the space where terrible abuse happened to girls is to me a bit sick and wrong it could be just me but I don't think knowing about the past I would have a food business there ever again.