Melanie Pullen - Photographer

[.francesca]

melanie pullen is a photographer who shoots fashion in the spirit of old crime scenes. her 'victims' wear haute couture. i find them enigmatically beautiful!

www.highfashioncrimescenes.com

this image isn't from her site..i can't grab from the site (flash). it's from here: www.nazraeli.com/nazraeli/newtitle/136-x.html

these are from http://www.acegallery.net/past/p-r/pullenmelanie/melaniepullenpr.htm

 

[Estella*]

they are beautiful, but i am very oldfashioned and hate fashion-spreads with dead people, misahoi posted a thread about a japanese(?) photographer who does something similar, you should have a look, francesca.
thanks for the thread.

 

[.francesca]

thanks, anna karina! i can totally understand the dead people thing. i find the lighting and settings really amazing. the dead model bent is quite frightening, but i like that about them. a lot of times, models who are very obviously alive look quite dead to me. at least here we can't often see their faces!

i'll look for that thread..thanks for letting me know about it!

 

[softgrey]

beautiful lighting and sets...
but i'm with anna on the subject...
too gruesome...

 

[.francesca]

really, gruesome? i found it decidedly not gruesome, precicely because it is all very subtle. the vertical blue one i'm not a huge fan of because of the blood, but the others, where there is nothing really to see, captivate me.

 

[softgrey]

it reminds me of helmut newton to some extent...
it's a personal thing....
i just don't like to see women portrayed this way...
i prefer more empowering images of women...

this is the ultimate in powerlessness...
not a positive image in my mind...

 

[Alpha Femme]

I think it's disturbing..... awful

and I agree with softgrey.

i just don't like to see women portrayed this way...
i prefer more empowering images of women...

this is the ultimate in powerlessness...
not a positive image in my mind...

 

[.francesca]

you're right softgrey, and i agree to an extent..there is something of powerlessness in these images. for me, i am, and always have been, very interested in forensic science and crime scene photography, so this is sort of like a really strange marriage in some ways. it's something i find disgusting, but also beautiful. and very intriguing in an anthropological sort of way.

 

[strawberry daiquiri]

I really love them. Thanks for sharing.

 

[jennifer~]

Thanks francesca... I'd like to think Bourdin would approve...

 

[Spacemiu]

I read about this in LA Weekly a few weeks ago....

it's pretty cool

 

[mishahoi]

izima kaoru http://www.thefashionspot.com/forums/showthread.php?p=674072#post674072

i also find the subject addictively intriguing

 

[travolta]

given her prepartion and concept i have to say i'm disapointed in how her photographs turned out. it seems she had something really going w/ her crime scene photography research and experience and the idea of forensics being beautiful, and death being not seen as necessarily macabre, but possibly moving. it seems she has borrowed heavily from bourdin, and it becomes another masochistic/ sexual/ glamour photoshoot. the coen brothers are mentioned in teh article, and i can see the comparison to the barrell image, but there's was much more effective. heels sticking out of a barrell tells me nothing that i haven't already been informed of through previous fashion photographers. i was intrigued when she spoke about using latex and transformingt he bodies..i would have preferred more of that type of experimentation in replace of pretty high heeled shoes.

the thing i did find interesting was the parallels to her work and the current american obsession w/ foresic crime dramas. her work kinda reminds me of that -- except w/ no story line. i caught one show once and it was filmed as brillantly saturated and slick as any fashion editorial complete w/ highly saturated neon colors for a 'finger print' sequence on a corpse. i felt like i was watching a steven soderbergh movie. anyways i think the still of the leg sticking out of the incinerater in fargo was much more effective in terms of strikingly beautiful macabre imagery -- or the movie seven.

 

[strawberry daiquiri]

After looking at the other pics on the site, it feels a bit repetitive. 3 or 4 shots of the same barrel/feet.

My favourite is still the third one posted here, with the stairs. Possibly because I would like photo without the body. And because the story is more suggested than stated.

Thanks for the other link mishahoi.

I like the idea of this since when you're alive you wear your clothes, but when dead they wear you. They may have a future, while you definitely don't. They somehow seem to have more importance, even when they shouldn't.

 

[TheSoCalledPrep]

I LOVE IT!! Thank you for posting. Very Hitchcock.

 

[liberty33r1b]

i find it rather disturbing as well.....a bold take on fashion, imo.

 

[travolta]

btw. francesca i appreciate you bringing this in. i love forensics

 

[.francesca]

thanks, travolta...i'm really interested in forensics, as well. i thought of that angle when i started studying photography a billion years ago...then i realised you have to go to school specifically for that and i wasn't sure i was ready for it. but i'm glad someone shares the enthusiasm! thanks!

 

[travolta]

^ hey no prob. i have a friend who studies forensic facial reconstuction..it's endlessly interesting. it's gotten to a point where she can look at someone's face and see gradual aging...like week by week! it's very interesting stuff.

i had a friend who studied photography at art school and she somehow got an internship? w/ the miami crime scene investigations bureau or the crime laboratory. i don't think she had any previous experience, but it about eight years ago or so? i have no idea how she managed to get involved, but it was really intense stuff..she photographed autopsies as well. she had taken slides of every case she worked on -- there was a lot, and it was obviously incredibly gruesome and shocking. i personally don't have the stomach for that, but it's interesting because she was completely unaffected, and she for the most part enjoyed working there.

 

[butbeautiful]

thanks travolta. i enjoyed this.