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Ph. Melanie Pullen

#Fashion Friday—High Fashion Crime Scenes

We post this Fashion Friday during the course of the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence Campaign, which occurs each year from 25 November (International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women) until 10 December (Human Rights Day).The 16-day campaign is a time to galvanize action to end violence against women and girls around the world. The international campaign originated from the first Women's Global Leadership Institute coordinated by the Center for Women's Global Leadership in 1991.

We feature images from Melanie Pullen’s book High Fashion Crime Scenes, to encourage reflection on gender-based violence. The monograph, published in 2005 by Nazraeli Press, is another medium for displaying Pullen’s work, which has appeared in many gallery exhibitions in Los Angeles. The extensive series is comprised of over 100 photographs, carefully staged and interpreted by the artist and based upon real forensic photographs from police archives.

Luke Crisell comments in the book’s Foreword, “to level accusations of morbidity at Pullen is as redundant as leveling accusations of voyeurism at the audience and for the same reason: this is art, and you can stare all you want.” The artist’s technical skill allows the viewer to notice the aesthetic composition of the scene or become entranced by the detailed minutae of the clothing before being confronted with the violent subject or context. It leaves the viewer unsettled. As Luke Crisell states “By means of a haunting collision of subject and style, Pullen evokes a disquieting dichotomy where death is at once highlighted and obscured.”

In his short essay, “Drowning in Organdy,” Colin Westerbeck notes how the artist plays with “the rawness of evidentiary photography and the stylizations of advertising or movies” in essence questioning the distinctions between fashion, art and commerce. He notes also the ambiguity around violence being absorbed in our everyday lives.

Now, with an understanding of the subject matter (crime scene photos and violence against women), method, and interpretive possibilities provided by Melanie Pullen’s High Fashion Crime Scene photographs, you can choose to view Pullen’s artwork by expanding below...