Evidence - Hardcover

Sante, Luc

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0374150508 ISBN 13: 9780374150501

Publisher: Farrar Straus & Giroux, 1992

Synopsis

A collection of evidence photographs taken by the New York City Police between 1914 and 1918 is minutely annotated to express the social fabric of the times, the texture of the lives depicted, and the progress of the forensic use of photography.

About this title

From Library Journal:

While doing research for his highly acclaimed first book, Low Life ( LJ 6/1/91), Sante was given access to the New York City Police Department Archives. There he discovered some 1400 photos and glass plate negatives dating from 1914 to 1918. This was all that remained of the department's once-vast evidence photo files; the rest had been trashed. Taken from the files, these 55 raw, stark photos of the dead--victims of murder or suicides--are both fascinating and horrifying, showing the bodies as they were found by the police in tenement rooms or in vacant lots. The images are accompanied by the author's comments and some excerpts from original newspaper reports of the events. In all, this is a striking and highly original piece of social history. Recommended for large and specialized collections.
- Howard E. Miller, Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Missouri Lib., St. Louis
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Publishers Weekly:

This slim volume contains a haunting collection of 55 black-and-white crime scene photographs made primarily between 1914 and 1918 by New York City police detectives investigating murders and suicides. Sante discovered this archive while researching Low Life, his history of the seamy side of old New York; he notes that these pictures survived when they were overlooked by workers who cleared out the former Police Headquarters in the mid-1980s by dumping most of the records into the East River. While Sante diligently attempts to resurrect the stories behind these images, readers learn less about what happened than about where it happened: about the bedrooms, hallways, railroad tracks, subway stations, cellars and barrooms of New York City 75 years ago.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Farrar Straus & Giroux
• Publication date: 1992
• ISBN 10: 0374150508
• ISBN 13: 9780374150501
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 99