The following details the responses by Michelle Fey a forensic photographer who worked for Auckland Police Service. The interview was conducted via Zoom on 28th February 2022. The responses will form part of my submission to Assignment Three.
- For you, what are the important aspects of forensic photography?
You basically have to think that you are showing these people, these images, to someone who’s never been at the scene. So it has to be logical, it has to be well lit. They have to be able to understand the layout. So you imagine if you’re in a house, and you’re taking a photo, photos, because there’s been a homicide or something like that. You need to take someone who’s never been there needs to feel that they completely understand what the layout of the house is and how it works. You just go through in a very logical way, and then you go back.
It’s a lot of standing around and waiting, because you’re waiting for ESR. Because they’ve got things that they do with depending on what the scene is, and samples they take, which we don’t want to cross contaminate. We’ll take very general photos, rather static. And then we go through and take more detailed photos, and obviously not standing on the ground or doing anything like that. But the main thing is, it’s like you are showing a jury or someone or a judge who’s never been there before, and they have to be able to understand it.
- Forensic photography creates a permanent visual record of the crime scene in the state in which it was originally found and plays a huge role throughout the entire investigation. Can you explain how you approach this or does it depend on the individual circumstance?
It does change a little bit, if you go to a domestic violence incident. They already know the offender. A homicide takes longer. Whereas if you know who the offender is, it doesn’t take as long. It’s because whether who done it you like triple/double checking that you’ve got everything because you can never come back with a someone who you know has already done it and has been arrested for it. You’re still going through and making sure you get everything. But it’s just a little bit different if you could imagine, because you already have the offender. So the process is still the same, but I think where it’s the who done it. It’s just a little bit more.
If it’s a domestic violence, you’ll normally find that there will be no one in the house and if this is a homicide and the body is there, we take photos of where the body is, then the body gets removed. And we carry on, in go through and do everything. Depending on blood splitters, yada yada, yada, or how they died.
- The images play a key role in reconstructing the events which took place and give jurors a clear image of the crime. How difficult is it achieve this? What are the key areas to consider and avoid?
- How do you separate your personal professional photography skills from that of being a forensic photographer or are they complimentary?
How, how do you cope with that, mentally? Is it something that comes with experience?
The main way we used to do it was not my bubble, not my monkeys, not my bubble. Because it was you you were literally going when I was working in Auckland, I literally went from job to job to job to job to job to job to job and on the emotion from every single job. You’d last five minutes. Yeah, it was. You just not my monkeys. Not my circus. Really? Sorry, this happened to you. Carry on
You don’t have any choice? Yeah, catches up with you eventually. Learn to process it. But while you’re actually doing it, you’re just focused on making sure you get everything you need. The boys or girls that are trying to put that case together for court. That’s all you’re thinking about? You’re not thinking about anything else. It’s like, okay, did I get the injuries only face hits? You’ve got the injuries on your body? How can we photograph those with out? We’re like photographing them very carefully to be able to show the wounds with by giving her as much modesty as you can.
- What’s in your kit bag? How has this changed if at all? (assume you have only used digital equipment)
It’s much easier now. We don’t have to carry anywhere near as much stuff because with film you used to use 200 or 400 or 800 film. 800 iso would be for at night. 200 would be for during our summer. Would be Autumn Winter or, you’d use a 400 or 800 it really depended on where you were and what you were doing. Whereas now it’s just cards.
Would there be a card per case? no, because it’s just way too expensive. So all your raw images are saved? Yeah. So then that way, and if the lawyers or anything like that decide they want to look at the raw images, they all have to be available. Yeah. Even if you’ve taken like four photos of the outside of the house. And you’ve only used one particular photo. Yeah, that is the same as negatives, you have to keep them so they’re stored not necessarily with the case that they probably will be would be now because it’d be it’s all digital. But then we had all our negatives were held within our section, but they were all numbered, and they all had job numbers. So there were like hundreds and hundreds filed.
You would still use a lot of flash and a little bit of off camera flash if needed. But you can get away with a lot more than what we used to because we used to have mixed flashes, like quite big flash leads that we used to use. It would break because boys are rough. But yeah, we used to have a lot more kit than now, but yes, you’d still have a long lens and a 50mm, a macro pretty much and a body. And a backup body.
- Are there any special techniques that you use to ensure all evidence has been captured?
Yeah, so long as it’s logical If you’re walking through a house, you see the whole house and the number of the house? And then you get closer? And you see just the house? And depending on what’s happened as to how much we need to show of the outside of the house. And then you and depending on obviously, what happened as to how much of the house that you need to photograph. If the incident happened in the lounge. And they came into the lower part of the house and went out the front door, and they only went into that one room, the rest of the house is pretty much irrelevant. If something else happened within there, then other areas would be photographed as well.
There is usually a brief when we arrive usually like a two or three sentences statement. This is what’s happened. They’ve gone in here. This is what we need. And then we do a lot of communicating back with the OSI. So I don’t just go in there and take all my photos and then leave. I have to check in and make sure I have captured everything they need. I make notes, log everything as you can’t go back, and court cases make take some time before they are seen by a Judge. Easier now as you can check with film you can’t.
- Has there ever been a case where images that you have taken have affected the outcome of a case?
No, the process you follow is logical.
- Have your professional skills ever been questioned during an investigation?
Kind of take that we’re trained. And yeah, they understand that those photos are the facts of the scene.
- There have been cases reported of mistaken identity (ID shots) or false memory in court cases how important do you think forensic photography is in playing the part of scene sitting and memory recall of witnesses?
If you go through a house and you know something happened there and you never want to go back there again, the likelihood the court case isn’t going to be for one or two years depending on the how high the importance of what it is. And that just helps your recall and ensure you capture everything. I don’t really think that it would because what you put in front of them is only what they would have seen or what was there. You’re not putting extra things in there. It’s fact nothing else.
- Do you think the image only shows the facts?
No, I don’t think so because we just in photography mode, you will just take what’s in front of you.
- How much of the process is based on your perspective? Do you think this could affect the outcome or does the camera never lie?
There’s no creatively composing anything it is what it is. There’s no changing anything. You can change the exposure to cope with the conditions. But that’s about it.
Michele Usher 