Bibliothèque des littératures policières, Paris

THE SCENE OF THE CRIME - RODOLPHE A. REISS (1875-1929)

After presenting "The Scene of the Crime" in Lausanne and Geneva, in honour of its 25th anniversary, the Musée de l'Elysée presents these local crime scenes at the Bibliothèque des littératures policières in Paris.

Scientific police photographs are very rarely presented to the public, remaining stored for many years in confidential files because they transgress taboos when their subjects are violent death and crime. These pictures, taken almost a hundred years ago by Rodolphe Archibald Reiss, founder of the l’Institut de police scientifique of the Université de Lausanne, reveal their entire aesthetic dimension while retaining their intense emotional strength. As a forensic science pioneer, Reiss shows photographic skills which are unequalled in this field.

As the investigators’ artificial memory, the photographs were taken in a very formal style to document crime scenes and clues discovered as unemotionally as possible. They are all associated with Reiss’s teaching or expert evaluations. They allow us to see unusual sites and environments and,
paradoxically, are often formally very abstract. The boundary between reality and the imaginary remains unbroken here. Situated between the acts and their representation, these photographs are filled with unusual emotion
due to the dramatic circumstances which they retrace.

The Musée de l'Elysée presents at Bibliothèque des littératures policières a version of the exhibition produced in collaboration with the Institut de police scientifique of the Université de Lausanne.

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