5/13/03:
Domestic Violence Photography -
Documentation by photography is an important and powerful tool in the investigation of domestic violence crimes. When injuries resulting from domestic violence are promptly and adequately documented, it is possible for prosecution to occur without the victim's testimony.
Penetration and reflection of light on the skin is a function of wavelength. Shorter wavelengths such as UV do not penetrate the skin very far before it is reflected back to the camera. Therefore a high resolution picture of the skin surface is possible. This works well for bite marks, cuts, scratches and scars. This is not a good technique to apply to bruises unless the blood accumulation is very close to the skin surface....After an assault, the victims' injuries may be photographed any time within the next two to five days. Visible light penetrates deeper into the skin than UV light and is sufficient to document most bruises. The addition of special wavelength sources and special filters can improve the visualization of the injuries by enhancing the blue color and improving the contrast against the normal skin tones."
The article, solely a technical overview of forensics photography for injuries, describes the ideal situations for adequately isolating a body's particular condition, mostly only in terms of how lightwaves and film react to skin color. But also, in these terms, the camera becomes a site for re-enacting an earlier violence, or substituting violence as a means for reproducing it. And I can't help but sense a rather violent subtext ("penetrating light... penetrating deeper") in such otherwise dry language. A quite complexly loaded writing.
posted by jeremy @ 12:30 PM
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