Description
Book SynopsisAlexa Neale is Leverhulme Early Career Research Fellow in Historical Criminology at the University of Sussex, UK. She is currently researching crime narratives and the meaning of evidence in a project titled Black Books: The Institutional Memory of Hanging and Mercy at the Home Office'.
Trade ReviewIn her forensic analysis of hitherto unseen photographs of domestic interiors that were crime scenes, Alexa Neale reveals the part they played in imagined narratives of murder presented in courtrooms. Her microhistories of individual cases, each framed by a compelling imaginative vignette, go beyond the crimes in question and give new insights into social class, gendered and racial identities revealed in the spaces and material culture of 20th century Londoners’ homes. * Deborah Sugg Ryan, Professor of Design History and Theory, University of Portsmouth, UK *
An immersive, clear-eyed account of Neale’s encounter with the criminal archive. Trial transcripts, criminal case files, media reportage, ephemera and, most importantly, photographs found in police prosecution records are read along – and against – the grain. Neale teaches us how deftly these materials were used to create powerful prosecution narratives, and also how to read them now: as evidence of home life, relationships, lives and secrets. Bringing imaginative methodological approaches to her fascinating sources, Neale’s work is a microhistory made from the surviving remnants of criminal records. Her reading of forensic photographs is lucid, original and a major contribution to the field. * Katherine Biber, Professor of Law, University of Technology Sydney, Australia *
In this compelling and challenging study of crime scene photography, Alexa Neale shows how the camera shaped how crime and the law were perceived and represented in modern Britain.
Photographing Crime Scenes in 20th-Century London is an astute analysis, bringing together cultural history, legal history and the social history of crime. Neale’s book also uses the camera’s lens to tell a series of fascinating stories about private and public life in twentieth-century London, from a louche mews in Knightsbridge to the dark alleys of Limehouse. * Stephen J Brooke, Professor of History, York University, Canada *
A trailblazing title which opens up this visual world to the crime, cultural and media historian. Through a critical analysis of crime scene photography and narrative this book persuades criminal historians to look at the visualisation of crime in new and exciting ways. * David Nash, Professor of History, Oxford Brookes University, UK *
Table of ContentsList of Illustrations 1. Introduction: Encountering crime scenes 2. ”Isn't Dinner Ready?”: Spatialising working-class home and marriage in Camden3.
'She Wore No Ring': Picturing sexual jealousy and provocation in Bloomsbury4. "The Love Hut": Perverting public/private boundaries in Knightsbridge 5. "Murder Story": Telling 'Ripper' tales in Limehouse and beyond 6. ‘Joseph Aaku's Cat’: Imagining home and race in St. Pancras 7. "We've really hit the jackpot now, doll": Changing lives in North Kensington 8. Conclusion: A place through crimeBibliography Index
