Splatter

Laura Larson

1999 · Gelatin silver print · Photographs

For her series My Dark Places, Larson photographed miniature models of crime scenes made in the 1940s by Frances Glessner Lee, a pioneer of forensic investigation. Lee used the models, which she dubbed "Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death," to train future detectives, coroners, and medical examiners in proper investigative techniques. The perspective of Larson’s cinematic photograph recasts the miniature model on the scale of real life, inviting the viewer to construct a narrative from a series of details. The overturned chair, the telephone, and the telltale blood splatter are clues that, through close examination, tell the story of a murder.

Artist

Laura Larson

Date

1999

Medium

Gelatin silver print

Department

Photographs

Credit line

Purchase, Vital Projects Fund Inc. Gift, through Joyce and Robert Menschel, 2015