Le Théâtre du crime

WARNING
Some people may find the following images disturbing. The Musée de l’Elysée advises sensitive individuals and children below 14 not to attain the exhibition.

Scientific police photographs are very rarely presented to the public, remaining stored for many years in confidential files because they transgress taboos when their subjects are violent death and crime. These pictures, taken almost a hundred years ago by Rodolphe Archibald Reiss, founder of the Institute of forensic science of the University of Lausanne, reveal their entire esthetical dimension while retaining their intense emotional strength. Pioneer of criminalistics, Reiss masters photographic techniques without precedent in the field of forensic science.

As the investigators’ memory, the photographs were taken in a very formal style to document crime scenes and marks as unemotionally as possible. They are all associated to educational or casework documentation from Reiss. They also allow us to see unusual sites and environments and, paradoxically, are often formally very abstract. The boundary between reality and the imaginary remains unbroken here. Between the acts and their representation, these photographs are marked with unusual emotion due to the dramatic circumstances which they witness.

This exhibition has been prepared in collaboration with the Institute of forensic science of the University of Lausanne, which is celebrating the hundredth anniversary of its creation by Rodolphe Archibald Reiss. “Le Théâtre du Crime” is also the subject of a publication in French by the Presses Polytechniques Universitaires Romandes. Including texts by Christophe Champod, Daniel Girardin, Luce Lebart, Pierre Margot, Jacques Mathyer, Nicolas Quinche and Eric Sapin, this book in duplex printing (320 pages, in French) will be available from July 27, including at the Musée de l’Elysée’s bookstore.

The exhibition was organised in collaboration with Institut de Police scientifique de l'Université de Lausanne, and with support of L'Office Fédéral de la Culture, La Banque Cantonale Vaudoise, La Loterie Romande