Unnatural Deaths: the emotional power of forensic photographs

The writer Kate Rossmanith looks at the surprising ways in which bereaved relatives view the forensic images associated with the sudden death of loved ones. Unnatural Deaths, the second in our Present Traces series, combines Australian crime-and-accident scene photos with the experiences of police photographers, coroners, social workers, and, most importantly, victims’ families, to explore the strange effects of grief and remorse. Present Traces is a series of films from Macquarie University, shown by Guardian Australia, that link film and archive material 
• Watch Present Traces: Asio Makes a Movie
View the video at https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/video/2018/feb/19/unnatural-deaths-the-emotional-power-of-forensic-photographs-video

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8 COMMENTS

  1. I'm here in the U.S and my brother in law "killed himself" a few years ago. 4 people were with him and each one had a different story. Things did NOT add up at all. No investigation, no nothing. Less than 2 hours after we identified him at the hospital, we went by the apartment. It was spotless and all of his belongings were gone. The mattress he fell onto was gone. Everything. His belongings started being left on his ex wife's front porch in the middle of the night for several weeks. I will never believe he killed himself. Didn't own a gun, had never used a gun. But, they said it was a suicide and closed the case.

  2. Seeing the photos and spending time wondering what you could have done different are incredibly painful ways to stay stuck in the pain. Most times you can't have an impact on these occurrences in any meaningful way. I know how this feels because my young cousin was brutally murdered by a classmate. We searched for her when the police wouldn't claiming she was only a run-a-way. We were at her killer's house within hours of him burying her under his front porch. I went crazy from guilt. "If only" became my catch phrase. When I spoke with an officer on her case who laid the murder out for me sequentially did I understand that the only person who could have prevented the murder was the killer. That info wasn't in any pictures or interviews, it was in the proof she (the dective) had uncovered.

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