Melanie Pullen
Biography
Melanie Pullen’s collection of more than one hundred photographs that comprise High Fashion Crime Scenes is based on vintage crime-scene images she mined from the files of the Los Angeles Police Department, the County Coroner’s Office, and other primary sources. Drawn to t
he rich details and compelling stories preserved in the criminal records, she began re-enacting the crime-scenes, outfitting the “victims” (her selected models) in current haute couture, and photographing them in her staged settings.
Self-taught and raised in a family of photojournalists, publishers and artists, she began the present project after seeing a copy of Luc Sante’s 1992 book Evidence (1914-1919) about crime scene photos from the New York Police Department. While the disturbing stories behind the pictures intrigued Pullen, she was more interested in the minute details: the material that made up the images and told a story. Prior to the mid-1950’s the nature of criminal photographs was fundamentally different from their present, clinical form. Given the complexity of cameras earlier in the century, most crime scene photographers had both artistic and professional experience. With an eye for composition, lighting and drama, photographers like Eugene Atget, Alexander Gardner, Jacob Riis, and Arthur Fellig (a.k.a. Weegee) produced crime photos that were artistic and documentary, evocative of tabloid illustrations or film noir. Inspired by such images, Pullen conducted extensive research in the LAPD archives that yielded a wealth of vintage sources to work with. Photographs from the series employ the power of fashion to disguise and distract, or to draw our attention away from the otherwise gruesome subjects. While representations of violence-including its causes and effects-have always dominated visual culture, artists have long employed the subject to comment on greater social values and taboos. Pullen herself has noted that she takes aim at society’s glamorization of violent acts and crimes by literally redressing what are deeply disturbing events.
Following preproduction she works one on one with a commercial laboratory to achieve the final result and print size of up to ten feet. As a result, teh viewer’s attention intitally focuses more on the setting than the actual “scene”. Melanie Pullen was born in New York City in 1975; she currently lives and works in Los Angeles, CA. She has been profiled in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Beaux Arts, Artweek, ELLE, BorderCrossings, The Independent on Sunday Review, Flaunt and Vogue Japan. She was also profiled in May 2006 in Nylon Magazine and Book LA in a twelve-page feature.
Pullen’s series was recently published by Nazraeli Press in a 128 page hardcover book. The publication High Fashion Crime Scenes is currently available at bookstores worldwide.
Statement
“I’m totally fascinated about lines and perspective. I like long shots in hallways, anything that has a depth to it.”
- Melanie Pullen
Timeline
1975 – Born in New York City, New York
Lives and works in Los Angeles, California
Has shot layouts for Flaunt and Rolling Stone
Selected Exhibitions
Sep 19 – Nov 17, 2007 – Melanie Pullen: High Fashion Crime Scenes, MiCamera (Italy)
Oct 05 – Nov 04, 2006 – Melanie Pullen: High Fashion Crime Scenes, Stephen Wirtz Gallery (CA)
May 26 – Sep 01, 2005 – Melanie Pullen: High Fashion Crime Scenes, ACE Gallery Beverly Hills (CA)
Featured Works
High Fashion Crime Scenes
by Melanie Pullen
The photographer’s breakthrough debut collection. One of the most important and most unusual photography books of the year 2005. Limited Edition of 3000 copies. A dazzling production by Melanie Pullen and Chris Pichler: Oversize-volume format. A very tall and slim book. Pictorial hard boards with titles on cover and spine, as issued. Photographs by Melanie Pullen. Texts by Luke Crisell, Robert Enright and Colin Westerbeck. List of Plates appended at the end. Printed on thick glossy stock paper to the highest standards. In matching pictorial DJ with titles on the cover and spine, as issued. Presents the photographer’s stunning fusion of voyeurism and hype, sensationalism and lurid beauty in our late-modern, media-driven culture. Fascinating as well as disturbing intersections that characterize The Way We Live Now, Pullen’s photographic tableaux are “breathtakingly beautiful works based on vintage crime-scene images, first-hand accounts, and documents Pullen mined from the files of the LAPD. Melanie Pullen began restaging the events, outfitting the victims (her selected models) in current haute couture, and photographing them in her staged settings. To create this work, Pullen enlisted the help of up to sixty people per shoot: Set builders, makeup artists, models, stylists and stunt crews, among others. Her models have included the actresses Rachel Miner and Juliette Lewis. The collection has received considerable critical acclaim in the national and international press. Over the past three years, the artist has worked as a commercial fashion photographer. She has shot layouts for Flaunt and Rolling Stone Magazines” (Chris Pichler). Grounded in her commercial fashion work, here at last is her much-awaited artistic debut. 57 plates. One of the most brilliant living American photographers. © 2006, ModernRare.com
Blue (Water Series)
2005
Cibachrome
76-1/2″ x 99-1/2″
Edition of 5
Nina
2005
Cibachrome
99-1/2″ x 76-1/2″
Edition of 5
Other