anne kernan

Murderer Murdered

Murderer Murdered explores the aesthetics of evil and innocence. The inspiration is from the photographs used by the media in the portrayal of both murderer and victim. In these photographs the murderers tend to look like evil personified whilst the murdered tend to look like they have their whole lives ahead of them. In reality however, these aesthetics are not so clear-cut. Most people would probably have a photograph that the press would use if they were to commit a murder, as well as one that they would use if they were murdered

These images convey the ability of the camera to capture in a split second a look of pure evil or total innocence. Separate the images and the onlooker cannot doubt that the 'murderer' is capable of the most heinous crimes and that the 'murdered' is entirely blameless. By choosing which photograph to publish, the media encourages you to believe in a persons guilt or innocence.

Although these images are not of actual murderers or victims they depict the ability of the individual to portray the aesthetics of both evil and innocence without necessarily possessing either trait. These photographs were submitted from existing photographs rather than specifically posed.