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Thread: Forensic Evidentiary Photographer

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    Forensic Evidentiary Photographer


    Kelly Root in her Hamtramck home.

    Remains of the day:
    Artist-turned-evidentiary photographer plies her trade at the county morgue.

    REVIEW OF FOLLOWING ARTICLE:

    by Ian M. LeBlanc

    "Forensic photographer Kelly Root turns the pages of a portfolio of evidence pictures at the Wayne County Medical Examiner’s Office. She’s surrounded by a group of students from a photography class she teaches at Oakland Community College. They’ve come on a blustery Saturday morning in March for a field trip, to get a glimpse of Root’s work at this, one of the nation’s busiest morgues.

    "Root hardly pauses as she skims through the images, rattling off details of each case. There are suicides, auto accidents, murders. The photos are startling, showing the carnage of gunshot wounds and the gore of autopsies in cold, unblinking clinical detail. The students look on, mute. But Root is unruffled.

    Coming to a set of pictures that show a man lying on the floor and a close-up of a dead rodent, Root glances up. “This is interesting,” she says “This guy, he had a gun and he went to kill a mouse. He hit the mouse with the butt of the gun and it went off and killed him. So there’s the mouse in the corner.”

    The students look at each other, apparently unsure of how to respond. Finally, one ventures timidly: “Did he get the mouse?”

    Root’s lips compress into a hard line that’s neither a smile nor a grimace. Her response is deadpan. “Yeah,” she says, flipping to the next page, “he killed the mouse and himself at the same time.”

    Root, one of her student guests comments, “doesn’t look like someone you’d expect to be working here.” Indeed, with her long blond hair, rosy complexion and delicately defined features, the 25-year-old looks more like a J. Crew model than the pasty, ghoulish mortuary worker of popular imagination.

    Root doesn’t have the background you might expect of someone in her line of work either. She never planned to go into a forensic field; rather, she found her way to clinical photography from the distant world of the fine arts.

    Growing up in a comfortable home in the Flint suburb of Flushing, this daughter of two GM assembly line workers was always interested in art. In high school she dabbled in painting and drawing before discovering photography. “I fell in love with the process,” she explains. “I loved watching images come up in the developer.” She was fascinated by the camera’s ability to capture and preserve a moment in time. It made her look at the things and people around her, she says, “in a whole new light.”

    Photography quickly became her focus. “It was the only thing I was good at,” she says. After graduation, art school was the obvious choice. With her parents’ enthusiastic support she enrolled in the photography program at Detroit’s prestigious College for Creative Studies.

    At CCS, Root’s interest in studying her surroundings led her to specialize in social documentary photography, a genre similar to photojournalism with its realism and emphasis on narrative. Working on undergraduate projects such as a study of street scenes on New York’s Lower East Side, or a series of portraits of twentysomething Detroiters, Root developed a rigorous, no-frills photographic style.


    She prefers to shoot full-frame, meaning she doesn’t crop or otherwise manipulate her pictures after they’re printed. It’s a technique that emphasizes the photo’s content and demands a keen eye for storytelling and composition. “My photos are not always about the visual,” Root explains. “They’re more about the subject matter. It’s what the photo shows that matters most to me, not necessarily whether it looks like a piece of art.”

    For her senior thesis project, Root chose to depict the process of embalming. Originally, she says, she wanted to document the experiences of people who work alongside death on a daily basis — doctors, medics, morticians, cops — and investigate how this contact affects their daily lives. “I got the best feedback from funeral homes, so I narrowed the scope of the project to focus on the process and environment of embalming,” she says.

    She readily admits that it was a macabre subject for a photo thesis. But, she says, she wasn’t drawn to the topic out of simple morbid fascination. Instead, she chose to study embalming because it’s a completely ordinary, everyday occurrence that’s viewed as extraordinary. “It’s something that happens every day in every mortuary in Michigan, that will happen to most of us. Yet people don’t ever discuss it,” she explains. Her goal with the thesis, she continues, was to shed light on this otherwise hidden part of everyday life.

    Another appeal of the project was the personal challenge it presented. “I got into that [thesis topic] because I wondered how I would react to the subject and how it would show in my photography,” she explains. “I wondered if I would shy away from it, if my photos would be from, like, 20 feet away. It made me go outside of my boundaries, both as a photographer and as a person.”


    She quickly learned to adopt the morticians’ straightforward, matter-of-fact manner and attitude as well. “You know, at first it was uncomfortable. They [morticians] would make these morbid jokes and I was, like, ‘Oh, weird.’ But you adjust; when you work with it every day, it becomes part of [the experience],” she explains. “Maybe you don’t become totally comfortable with it, but you learn to accept it to a certain extent.”

    The final product reflects this sense of acceptance. Though the project’s 27 images depict the preparation of the body in jarring, unflinching detail, they manage to overcome the initial repugnance of their subject matter and even lend it an unexpected and incongruous beauty.

    In one shot, for example, a coil of rubber tubing turns gracefully over a corpse’s chest as a mortician inserts an IV of formaldehyde into a vein; in another, a woman lies on a table, her skin as luminescent as polished alabaster.

    In all, it’s only the photos’ stark, somber beauty that makes them viewable. “The art quality of those photos was very important to me,” Root explains. “The composition, the light, the color — I wanted them to be as beautiful as possible in order to engage the viewer.”

    Predictably, the thesis elicited much strong reaction. When it was displayed at her graduating class show, Root says, viewers were either powerfully drawn to it or powerfully repelled. “It was interesting to see people’s response. They would walk by, look at it, then look away. They didn’t know what to make of it. Some people would stop and take a closer look; others would keep going and avoid it.”

    Comments in Root’s exhibit book illustrate this ambivalence. A note from a photo student praises her work as “intense” while another comment condemns it as “totally unnecessary and disrespectful.” Yet another viewer writes, “I’m getting cremated. Thanks for helping me come to this decision.” Someone else, who identifies himself as a photographer from a family of funeral directors, counters, “I would never disrespect the dead like you have.”

    An especially offended viewer writes: “Your [sic] a sick son of a go to hell! I hope I see you so I can kick your ***. Plus I hate you.”

    Much to Root’s frustration, the ambivalence toward her work extended to some of the CCS faculty. Her thesis, she says, was placed in an out-of-the-way part of the exhibit area; she thinks the curators did this to avoid controversy.

    Root’s friend and former CCS photography classmate Carrie Williams agrees. “Kelly was always one of the best in the photo program,” she says. “Everyone assumed she would be featured in the center gallery. When she wasn’t, we were all surprised. Everyone thought it was politics.”

    Root was bemused by the negative response to her thesis — but wasn’t surprised. She admits that she was gratified to see viewers’ strong reactions, but insists that her aim wasn’t simply to be shocking. “Maybe it has shock value,” she says, “but there’s educational value too.”

    She argues that objections stem mostly from people’s discomfort and unwillingness to talk — or even think — about death. Projects such as her thesis, she believes, are beneficial in that they compel viewers to ponder the frightening but inescapable fact of their own mortality. She contends that her photos do not compromise the dignity of her subjects. Rather, they show the truth of what happens to the body after death — a truth that may be disturbing, but that is nonetheless inevitable. “People don’t think about what happens to their loved ones after they die. They just blindly hand them over to the mortician. I wanted to show them what really goes on.”

    While researching her thesis, Root became acquainted with Joseph Sopkowicz, the head forensic photographer at the Wayne County Medical Examiner’s Office. After her 2000 graduation, Root became a photography intern at the Warren Avenue office. At the end of her internship she began her present job as assistant forensic photographer. She is responsible for photographing cadavers that come through the office on weekends, holidays and when the chief photographer is away.


    The duties of the forensic photographer go far beyond just snapping an identifying photo of the deceased. Standing in the viewing gallery that looks through a plate-glass window into the main exam room, Root explains to her students that the photographers also must physically prepare the bodies for photography. Preparation can include cleaning wounds to make them more visible to the camera and “breaking rigor” — forcing down limbs that have contracted in rigor mortis.

    While preparing subjects for photography, the photographers sometimes discover wounds missed in the initial examination; Root gives the example of a recent case where she came across a gunshot wound in a subject’s ear that had been obscured by blood and passed over by the examining pathologist.

    In other cases, such as with self-inflicted gunshot wounds to the head, the photographers may even have to reconstruct the remains of a corpse’s face to make an ID picture possible.

    As Root details her duties, autopsy technicians wheel the day’s cases into main exam area. It’s a long, high-ceilinged room divided into several workspaces, each with a stainless steel exam table and sink.

    Every surface shines pristine and antiseptic in the diffuse sunlight that comes through the skylight overhead. On a wall an autopsy technician has posted pictures of the cartoon characters Lilo and Stitch; in one of the workstations a small radio murmurs the sedate sounds of a smooth jazz station.

    It’s a “slow day,” with only seven bodies to be examined. Root says she has worked days when the room was crowded with as many as 20. Among the cases on this Saturday morning are two suspected suicides, a teenager who was shot to death at a house party, and the skeletal remains of a child found in a vacant lot. The latter, arrayed on an exam table with the sheet and clothing with which the body was found, seem to pique the interest of the autopsy technicians. One picks up the skull with a gloved hand, examines what appears to be a fracture, and shakes her head.

    “If it gets to be too much for you and you want to leave, there’s an exit around the corner,” Root says, indicating a side door.

    Then she leaves her students in the gallery to join the team of autopsy technicians and pathologists, headed by chief medical examiner Dr. Sawait Kanluen. The team members, all clad in plastic aprons and gloves, move from table to table as Kanluen examines the corpses. Root listens attentively and jots down notes on a clipboard as the pathologist points out injuries and identifying features to be documented.

    Minutes later, Root wheels the first case, one of the suspected suicides, into the photo room. It’s a cramped space that smells strongly of disinfectant. In a sink a faucet pours into an overflowing container of instruments; on an adjacent counter sits a large handheld digital camera and an array of forceps, rulers and other tools laid out on a tray.

    Root’s manner is brisk and precise as she prepares to take the photos. She instructs her assistant, photo intern Nasreen Aziz, in a clipped, businesslike voice. She takes the identifying frontal shots, then she and Aziz flip the body to get a posterior view. They handle the corpse smoothly, confidently; neither seems to shrink from touching it. One of the students comments that it’s strange to see a human body move so stiffly; Root agrees, saying that the rigidity is a result of rigor mortis. As she shoots, she explains the technical details of the process to the students — the camera settings, how she frames the shots to best show injuries or important details, how she methodically changes her double set of gloves and disinfects the instruments and camera between each case.

    She points to the rows of lights in the ceiling and smiles wryly. “Those used to be incandescent lights. I’m glad they changed them. It must’ve gotten really hot in here under all those.”

    One of the students asks if Root ever feels uncomfortable in such a small room with the bodies. She laughs lightly. “Well,” she says, “when I first started, I wasn’t too thrilled about being in here alone with a case with the door shut. But I guess it doesn’t bother me now.”

    With the shots finished, Root and Aziz peel off their gloves and aprons. Root puts the instruments in the sink to be disinfected, notes the shots on her clipboard, and returns the body to the main room.

    In all, the shoot has taken only a few minutes. Root says that she tries to work as speedily as possible. “I just want things to move quickly and smoothly. I don’t want to hold anyone else up.” The photos, she says, must be completed before the autopsy is performed because they may be shown to the next of kin or used in court. “You really can’t do them after the autopsy. No one wants to see a photo of a person who’s been eviscerated.”

    When it’s time to photograph the murdered teen, Root warns the students that the youth suffered a gunshot wound to the head. “If you don’t think you want to see that, you can go back to the photo office and wait for us,” she says. Several of the students nod uneasily and follow Aziz out of the exam room.

    Root consults with one of the assistant medical examiners. He points out the multiple gunshot wounds to the youth’s head and chest. Apparently, the boy was shot to death some hours earlier after an argument over a rap song. The body, the doctor notes, is still slightly warm to the touch. Root shakes her head and comments on how young the boy looks. Then, following the doctor’s instructions, she slips a plastic block under the head, shaves the scalp at the site of the bullet’s entrance and takes a series of close-up shots.

    One of the guests asks Root if she reacts differently to photographing victims of homicide, as opposed to natural deaths or suicides. Root ponders the question for a moment, then replies, “I guess I’m pretty detached from it. Sometimes I think about it, but for the most part I focus on my job. I didn’t see them suffer or die … it’s after the fact. I just focus on taking the picture the best way I can.”

    Few cases shock her, Root continues. One of the few situations with the power to shake her detachment is when she sees a child who has died violently. “Sometimes when there’s a child, when I’m closing their eyes, I’ll say a little prayer, I’ll hope they didn’t suffer so much,” she says. “I know that they’re at peace now. So, yeah, I do think about it, but I realize that there’s nothing that can be done now. And my job is to make sure that there’s evidence to help catch and bring to justice whoever’s responsible for their death.”

    The knowledge that her photography plays a part in the meting out of justice, Root explains later, is one of the most gratifying aspects of her job. She’s dismayed to hear that forensic photos don’t always make it into court. “They don’t like to show the pictures to juries,” she says. “They think they’re too much to handle.”

    Nevertheless, Root believes that it’s important for people to see such images — for the same reason that it’s important for them to see depictions of procedures such as embalming. To her, it’s all part of being fully aware. Most people, she says, don’t realize how tenuous our grip on life really is, or how quickly and easily that grip can come undone.

    “People die every day,” she says. “And sometimes they die so pointlessly, so stupidly.”

    It is people’s inability to fathom their own mortality, and the mortality of others, she suggests, that too often leads to such senseless deaths.

    She points to the example of the slain teen. “I just don’t understand it. People don’t think death can happen to them. They don’t understand the consequences of their actions. I mean, to shoot someone? Over a rap song?” She is incredulous. “Is it that they don’t understand the consequences of shooting someone, or that they just don’t [care]? Or are their lives worth so little to them?” She shakes her head.

    “That’s what I want to show people,” she continues. “I want to show them consequences.”

    Root’s small Hamtramck flat is a bright, cozy place: Old family portraits and photos from former classmates adorn the living room walls; a wall alcove houses a statue of Shiva, the Hindu god of destruction and re-creation; a jackalope head hangs near a window. Root sits cross-legged on a small armchair in front of a bookshelf stacked with photography monographs, novels and medical textbooks. She’s a gracious hostess, offering coffee and slices of poppy seed roll from a nearby Polish bakery. It’s a far cry from her brusque efficiency at work.

    Still, even relaxed at home, Root is self-possessed and frank discussing herself and her work.

    She admits that she has always had a rather dark worldview. Her experience at the morgue, she says, has only supported this. Seeing the terrible things that people do to each other has given her an insider’s glimpse of what “really” goes on in the world — “or at least in Wayne County,” she adds. It has also made her think that the world is a much weirder, scarier place than the average person realizes.

    She emphasizes that it hasn’t made her trust people less. But it has made her more aware of her surroundings. She reads more into people’s actions and tries harder to divine their motives and intentions.

    She has also become more conscious of her dealings with the opposite sex. The men that come through the morgue, she says, typically die of “straightforward” causes — accident, suicide, murder. They’re also more likely to be killed by strangers. Women, on the other hand, almost invariably suffer sexual violence, often at the hands of loved ones or acquaintances.

    Predictably, she’s become more conscious of her own mortality. But, on the whole, she isn’t worried about finding herself on a table at the medical examiner’s office. “I don’t use drugs or sell drugs, I’m not in an abusive relationship, I don’t drive drunk or speed on icy roads,” she says, pointing out that, compared to most of the victims of untimely death that she sees in the morgue, she lives a low-risk lifestyle.

    Root acknowledges that she is, to a certain extent, fascinated with the macabre. But it’s a normal fascination, she believes. “Everybody has that curiosity — they want to know how other people live, and how people die. They want to know about their compulsive little habits, eating batteries and metal, people who eat their hair. I just get to see the most negative aspects of that.”

    Moreover, she emphasizes, “It makes me grateful for my life, my family. Like, my family’s not perfect — but it could be worse. Much worse.”

    She doesn’t think that her experience at the morgue has changed her much. Her younger brother, David, agrees. He hasn’t noticed any great difference in his sister since she began working as a forensic photographer, he says by phone from Mt. Pleasant, where he’s a senior at Central Michigan University. The only noticeable change, he says, is that she’s grown more self-assured and confident than ever.

    So confident, in fact, that she sometimes intimidates his friends on first introduction. “She’s older, attractive, smart,” he says. “I’ve had people say ‘Your sister scares me — I don’t know what to do around her. She’s too smart.’”

    But, he says, his friends quickly realize that she is as personable and outgoing as she is intelligent.

    Root knows that what she does isn’t for everyone — and she admits that on some days it can be too much for her. “Sometimes it doesn’t sit well. Sometimes you’ll get a really strong whiff of something you don’t want to smell. … It’s not the most pleasant thing to be around. I don’t know if I’d want to do it every day. Some days, when I have to photograph, like, eight cases, I’m like, ‘Man, I’m done.’”

    But on the whole, she’s learned to accept most aspects of the job — even to see the work as normal. “Not that people are expendable, but I realize that people die every day. I’m going to die, you’re going to die. It’s part of living,” she says. “I think you can grow accustomed to anything.”

    One of her coping mechanisms seems to be a healthy sense of humor. Root clearly doesn’t take herself too seriously. Her cell phone ringer, for instance, plays the theme from Bach’s “Toccata and Fugue in D Minor” — the organ riff that has become a scary-movie stereotype. And she makes no secret of her love of kitschy horror flicks, especially cornball thrillers such as Reanimator and Evil Dead.

    She has no taste for more realistic depictions of gore in movies like The Silence of the Lambs, however. Those movies “don’t appeal to me,” she says. “I guess I don’t appreciate the novelty or shock the way someone else would. To me it’s just disturbing.”

    She adds that the currently stylish, hyperrealistic carnage in films like Saving Private Ryan and on TV shows like “CSI” and “NYPD Blue” only adds to the public’s skewed view of death. “The concepts that they use in those shows are mostly accurate,” she explains, “but they’re still glamorized. They’re presented in this ‘gritty, realistic’ way, so people think they’re getting this glimpse of what really happens. But it’s still fake.”

    Representing the truth has become more important than ever to Root. The rigorous accuracy demanded by her forensic work, she says, has increased her concern for clarity, detail and realism. At the morgue, she says, “there’s no room for my personal take on [the subjects].” Her pictures are strictly defined by their status as documents; ideally, the work of every clinical photographer should be identical.

    Nevertheless, she often finds herself applying the rules of composition she learned in art school to her clinical work. Rather than simply taking a functional but uncomposed snapshot, she says, “I try to make sure everything is clean and neat and lined up and flawless. Because you want to concentrate on the characteristics of the [subject’s] injury and not how the photograph was taken.”

    Root says she was “burnt out” on art photography after graduating from CCS. Dissatisfied with and uninspired by the Detroit art scene, she focused all her energies on her work at the Medical Examiner’s Office. It’s only recently that she’s begun to shoot for herself again.

    At the same time that her fine arts training subtly influences her forensic work, her morgue experience has unsubtly influenced her technique and interests in art photography.

    Root believes there’s a natural link between her art and forensic photography. Her aim in both of the two seemingly distant fields is the same: to tell a strong story in as direct a fashion as possible, with great attention to accuracy and detail.

    “I guess I’ve got kind of an anal streak,” she says, then corrects herself. “No, wait. I shouldn’t say ‘anal.’ I should say ‘precise.’ It’s like ‘I’m a photography machine.’”

    One current project depicts scenes, objects and textures from her past; its aim, she says, is to document these easily overlooked yet evocative aspects of her childhood. It includes environmental portraits of her family’s Flushing home, as well as meticulous studies of surfaces that are touchstones of her childhood — the wallpaper and carpet in her old bedroom, the polished grain of an old wooden door.

    It’s all part of a desire to put herself into her pictures. “I’ve been taking pictures of other people for so long. Now I want to become part of the process, so I’m not just photographing other people, I’m photographing myself and putting myself in the same context.”

    Root’s most ambitious current project is the Williams Root Gallery, the showcase that she and Carrie Williams will soon open in Hamtramck. Though both women are photographers, the gallery will be open to all media, not just photography. Its first show, planned to be a benefit for the Hamtramck police and fire departments, is tentatively scheduled for the end of the summer.

    Williams, who lives downstairs from Root, is excited by the prospect of collaborating with her old friend and former classmate. Though the two have very different styles — Williams creates photo collages that depict fantastic or mythical beings and events and are a universe removed from Root’s gritty hyperrealism — Williams says that they have similar aesthetic senses and have long worked together. “Kelly is the first person I ask for advice. We always critique each other’s stuff — I know where she’s coming from,” she says.

    Root is unsure where her work or her gallery will fit into the local photography scene. Speaking about the state of the arts in Detroit, she’s characteristically blunt. In Detroit, she says, too much attention is paid to “rock ’n’ roll and seedy underworld scenes,” while there is a dearth of high-concept, risky, well-crafted art. She and Williams hope to fill this void with their gallery.

    “Hamtramck’s great,” Root says. “There’s really no pretension there. I come from a family of blue-collar workers; I feel at home here. I wouldn’t feel comfortable opening a gallery anywhere else.”

    She takes a long view of the pertinence of her photography. “People always say, ‘Oh, it’s all been photographed before.’ But not in your time period. One thing about my pictures, they might not be so interesting now, but in 20 years they may be worth a lot more.” Besides, she adds, she’s in no rush: “Most photographers’ work isn’t even appreciated until after they’re dead.”
    Source:

    http://www.metrotimes.com/editorial/story.asp?id=4947

  2. #2
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    Your thoughts on the review of the above article?

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    Thumbs up Forensic and/or Evidentiary Photography

    I must state that this has been a very informative article about Forensic and/or Evidentiary Photography. I feel inspired to continue to pursue this subject as a career option. I am looking forward to learning a lot more. By the way, what is the competition like for these types of jobs? I am assuming that there aren’t many people beating down the doors of morgues in order to become a Forensic and/or Evidentiary Photographer. I don't know one person who is driven to make this a career option except myself. Are there others involved in this field I can correspond with?

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    Re: Forensic and/or Evidentiary Photography

    Originally posted by Camille Selby
    I must state that this has been a very informative article about Forensic and/or Evidentiary Photography. I feel inspired to continue to pursue this subject as a career option. I am looking forward to learning a lot more. By the way, what is the competition like for these types of jobs? I am assuming that there aren’t many people beating down the doors of morgues in order to become a Forensic and/or Evidentiary Photographer. I don't know one person who is driven to make this a career option except myself. Are there others involved in this field I can correspond with?
    Hi Camille,

    I am attending college to become involved in Forensics. I was first introduced to the field by an instructor for my investigations degree. He and his wife both work for the same agency. He is a forensic photographer and his wife does the fingerprinting.

    What really intrigued me was the fact the truth will be told no matter what the stories are from family or said witness'. Example: She says her boyfriend shot himself. What the murderer doesn't know is the victim's position, the direction of blood flow, and the angle of the entrance of the bullet can all point to, this person didn't kill himself. The blood patterns on the wall and floor will tell the truth also.

    This field is so fascinating. I am looking forward to learning in deep detail about this. Another thing I learned was like fingerprints, no two bullets are the same. The areas of forensics are many.

    Here is a book you can either buy or check out at your local library. Opportunities in Forensic Science Careers. It has more than I knew existed. I want to do crime scene analysis.

    Have a great holiday weekend.

    Deborah Siehl

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    Great Article!

    Good evening, Donna

    I really enjoyed this article. I'm currently deciding on an area of expertise in the PI arena. Since I'm totally new to the field, I've been collecting bits and pieces of information found in the forums to help me choose a career path. I must say, that this field sounds fascinating. There's a lot of detailed here that sheds a lot of light on the field of forensic evidentiary photography. It will help me make a more informed decision about my future career objectives.

    Thanks so much for sharing. Enjoy the holiday.

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    I have to say that I have never really ever heard of anyone that just loves to do this kind of work. The story was very interesting, and the fact that she didn't let anyones opinion or negative feedback on her work get in her, makes for an even better story. I hope that the gallery that she is working on does very well and that she continues to do what she wants to do and not let anyone elses opinion come into play for any of her decisions.
    Robert Smith

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    Originally posted by Robert Smith
    I have to say that I have never really ever heard of anyone that just loves to do this kind of work.
    Hi Robert,

    When I tell close friends and family members that I want to do Forensics, I get a lot of negative responses. Eew! You want to see dead bodies and all the gore. For me, it is a passion for the field. The fact that science doesn't lie and the right person will be punished.

    Just my feelings, most people can't relate.

    Deborah Siehl

  8. #8

    Thumbs up I can relate.

    Originally posted by Deborah Siehl

    Just my feelings, most people can't relate.

    Deborah Siehl

    This one can!

    I am sure the ones who are uncomfortable with this subject of forensics want justice for wrong doing. Everyone wants justice. Someone has got to do the work to get it.

    Oh and by the way... thank you for the information on the book. I will get it as soon as I can.

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    Re: I can relate.

    Originally posted by Camille Selby


    Oh and by the way... thank you for the information on the book. I will get it as soon as I can.
    No Problem Camille, it was a book I came across at the library and checked out to explore the opportunities.

    My problem is, I don't know how the job works. I am doing one of two forensic degrees offered in my area, and I want to be at the scene, in the lab and out there talking with the witness's. I will start all the science and math core classes in January. So I have plenty of time to find out what I'll be doing.

    Deborah Siehl

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    Forensics sounds like it would be an interesting field with many options to pursue. It also seems like it would be an area with a high degree of specialty. This is a very informative article as well and I appreciate the different views and perspectives offered. Another aspect to consider when deciding which areas of PI work to explore.
    Kathie


    Badge # 6757

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    Forensics is indeed an interesting arena of investigation. I enjoy watching CSI on TV but I don't have the stomach for seeing cadavers. I certainly admire those that do their jobs so well and with such knowledge. My preference is to seek out evidence and turn it over to the experts who've chosen that field.

    Carolynne

  12. #12

    Forensic and/or Evidentiary Photography???

    Hello,

    I was wondering what the steps are to get into the forensic/evidentiary photography? This is what I want to do! Also, what is the wage like for something like this?

    Tawnya.

  13. #13
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    Hi Tawnya,

    I merged your question here so that others with an interest and knowledge of forensic/evidentiary photography would see your question.

    I noticed that this is your first post. If you would, please take a few moments and read the following link:.

    Newcomer? What to do FIRST!

    Please follow the instructions contained within that link to post your introduction. Posting your introduction gives all of our members an opportunity to properly welcome you to the forums and to our ever-growing “family.”

    After you post your introduction, you will also be given important links that will help you to learn how to use the forums effectively and to understand the application process.

    I look forward to meeting you in the Forum Member Introduction’s Lounge!

  14. #14
    Donna,

    Excellent article and the links are also very informative. I studied photography in college, but no one ever suggested Forensic Photography as a career option.

    This has certainly given me something to think about.

  15. #15
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    Thanks for the article

    I love photography. The other eye from your eye. I will be taking a Forensic Certtificate course this fall. I hope to be involved in this area of science. I hope to become involved as medical investigator with our Regional Forensic Center. Once again, your article was such a great source of information and was presented in a very positive manner. It's been a while since I have read an article that was not difficult to follow, you have great writing talent, thanks again and may your future in this area continue to grow.

  16. #16
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    Excellent article! I love taking photos and never even thought about this avenue. More research.
    Marisa
    "Success lies not in being the best,
    but in doing your best."

    --Anonymous

  17. #17
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    Thanks for the info, I think I will have to read that again to get it all.

  18. #18

    Thumbs up Forensic Evidentiary Photographer

    Donna,

    This was an excellent article. This field is so vast. You can literally make your own career in several areas of forensics.

    Forensic Files is one of my favorite television shows. I would prefer working in a crime lab to determine the specifics of the actual lab reports from the testing of materials from a crime scene.

    My area of direct focus is on Computer Forensics, which does not deal with cadavors directly, however, the possibility of theft of money and/or property can very easily lead to a crime involving murder.

    This field of photography sounds like it is very challenging and it would take a very dedicated individual to pursue it.

    Thanks for this information, it was very interesting. I appreciated reading it.

    Chanelle Stevenson
    Computer Forensics Private Investigator Trainee


  19. #19
    Michael Harris is offline Lifetime Professional Management Member

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    I am a photographer and I would love to use my skills in some aspect of investigation. However, I am not sure that I would want to have to deal with a dead body and say thnigs like "could you look this way a bit." The prospect of having to 'position' my models is not appealing.

    I am very happy for Keyy Root.
    Michael E. Harris

    Badge #6718

  20. #20
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    Good

    Outstanding article... The money has to be outstanding too.

  21. #21
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    Thumbs up

    What a captivating story!
    DJ
    DJ
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    Life is the souls nursery- its training place for the destinies of eternity.

    William M. Thackeray

  22. #22

    Forensic photographer

    As a Partime Deputy Medical Examiner this is a great idea!
    The cross over of information and the experience alone is
    overwhelming.
    Great article on Forensic Photography Thanks for sharing...

  23. #23
    Michael Harris is offline Lifetime Professional Management Member

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    Chris,

    Sounds like interesting work.
    Michael E. Harris

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  24. #24
    I enjoyed this article. I like to watch all those forensic TV shows like CSI/Forensic files/The System. I had thought about going into forensic photography, just for the fact that I love to take pictures. (I also work in a one hour photo lab). But after reading this article, I have second thoughts, I'm unsure I could move body parts to get a good picture or clean a wound. However, It still sounds very interesting to me. I guess I have a lot to think about.

  25. #25

    Forensic Photography

    Amanda Monroe

    Just thought I would responded to your forum.
    When I work with the deseased I always try to look at it as,
    being compassonate. How would I want to be treated if I was Dead? I have confidence that you would also. So go for what your dreams are.

    Chris A Brandt

  26. #26
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    Amanda,
    I agree with Chris. If this interests you, try it. You may be able to handle more that what you think. I, myself, was so intrigued by this article I have been looking at finding some affordable equipment to see if it is something I could pursue. Like you I love taking pictures and it would be interesting to combine Private Investigating with a hobby. You'll never know what you are capable of handling unless you try it. I think you would do very well!
    Just food for thought!
    See you on the forums!
    "Success lies not in being the best,
    but in doing your best."

    --Anonymous

  27. #27

    Foriensic Photographer

    Marisa

    Well said! Keep the faith.

  28. #28
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    Forensic Photography

    Chris,
    Thank you, thank you! You are too kind. All we can do is try, right? And have a little faith. I needed this reminder. I'll need every bit of faith while I wait for the results of my test.

    So much to do. So little time.

    Best of luck to all!
    "Success lies not in being the best,
    but in doing your best."

    --Anonymous

  29. #29
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    Donna,

    Great article. I worked in a funeral home for 12 years. I've been interested in forensics since. Death is so uncomfortable to most people and working around the dead and with death takes its toll after awhile. Not everyone can do it. You either love what you do or you don't do it.

    Colleen L Hayes Badge #6915

  30. #30
    Michael Harris is offline Lifetime Professional Management Member

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    Colleen,

    I empathize with you. I, personally, have not dealt with death on a daily basis.

    I have a good friend who used to be an ER nurse. It burned her out in about a dozen years. It was the kids from abusive homes that really got to her. She had to leave nursing. By then she was a little old for her former profession - naked go-go dancer.
    Michael E. Harris

    Badge #6718

  31. #31
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    That was a good article, obviously not for everyone, those people that "feel" others pain probably should stick with the local portrait studio.

    Jeff

  32. #32
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    She is great.
    I hope I become half as good as Kelly Root.

    I love taking pictures. We share our pictures all the time on the web.

  33. #33

    Forensic Artist

    Originally posted by Donna Reagan
    For other Forensic Photographer resources,

    Click here:
    http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=%22...=20&fl=0&x=wrt

    Your thoughts on the review of the above article?
    As a former art teacher, I found the article fascinating. It reminded me of the movie, "Road to Perdition" starring Tom Hanks. In that movie a photographer not only shot pictures he "shot" pictures. Meaning he kiiled the victims he photographed.

    Somewhere I saw an exhibit of murder scenes where the photographer tried to make it an artistic picture- unusual angles, special filters, etc. I used to have a darkroom and have an interest in photography. Hmmm, I wonder....


  34. #34

    Forensic Photogragher

    Ken

    Great resource on the web-sites, Thank you. As a photographer
    this stuff is very interesting!
    Good luck in your future!

  35. #35
    Michael Harris is offline Lifetime Professional Management Member

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    Ken,

    That reminded me of an episode of "The X-Files" in which a photography knew when a death would occur and took eerie B&W shots of the freshly dead.

  36. #36
    Originally posted by Michael Harris
    Ken,

    That reminded me of an episode of "The X-Files" in which a photography knew when a death would occur and took eerie B&W shots of the freshly dead.
    Oh, that was my favorite show while it was on the air. I think I probably saw every episode at least once.

  37. #37
    B Ann Craig -'s Avatar
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    I remember that X-files show. It was a good one.

    Have a wonderful weekend. Take care.
    Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves;
    We are his people, and the sheep of his pasture...be thankful unto him, and bless his name. Ps 100


    Visit our New Home Page: www.ipiu.org

  38. #38
    Michael Harris is offline Lifetime Professional Management Member

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    Ann,

    That was a very good show. The actor who played the photographer has been around for half a century.

  39. #39

    I love this!

    What a positive role model you are. I'm excited about what I'm about to get myself involved in. This is only one example of what I may be able to spend time investigating.

    Love it,

  40. #40
    B Ann Craig -'s Avatar
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    Michael, He has been around a long time.

    Have a wonderful week. Take care.
    Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves;
    We are his people, and the sheep of his pasture...be thankful unto him, and bless his name. Ps 100


    Visit our New Home Page: www.ipiu.org

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