And the Donald Rumsfeld Death Whore Award goes to: High Fashion Crime Scenes photographer Melanie Pullen
There are a lot of creeps out there. Well, we’re in the middle of a presidential election, so that hardly needed saying, of course.
Still, they don’t come much creepier – or sleazier – than Melanie Pullen, one of those highbrow photographers. She had noticed that people seem to glamourize violence. That wasn’t a breathtakingly new observation but her reaction was a bit less run of the mill. Her first and foremost thought being: If it pays to be ghoulish, then let’s make some serious cash:
Melanie Pullen’s long-awaited first monograph, High Fashion Crime Scenes, presents her breathtakingly beautiful works based on vintage crime scene images, first-hand accounts, and documents Pullen mined from the files of the Los Angeles Police Department.
In 2002, drawn to the rich details and compelling stories preserved in the criminal records, 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 at times enlisted the help of up to sixty people per shoot: set builders, makeup artists, models, stylists and stunt crews, among others.
‘High Fashion Crime Scenes’ is presented in an oversized format, richly printed and machine varnished on matt art paper.
Really, such a nice woman. Take a real life murder victim. Ignore the pain and indignity of the victims and their families. Dress up an ersatz corpse in a Versaci dress, make pictures, make a book. MAKE MONEY!!! Real classy. I’m not saying I hope one of Melanie Pullen’s loved ones will die soon and that someone will stuff the remains of the deceased and take this on some well-advertised freak show tour. That would be a bit hard on the victim – though no more than Pullen deserves.
Oh, and if there is a Hell, I do hope they will reserve a few hot seats for all the people behind and involved with the TV programme ‘America’s Next Top Model’ – especially the ‘Week Four: Crime Scene Victims’ part.
Taking off where even the Melanie Pullen vulture couldn’t go without gagging, the programme did photo shoots of all the contestants playing dead, not only dressed to the nines but also with the ‘appropriate’ murder victim make-up.
The incredibly vile members of the jury deserve a special mention – and a hopefully slow and very painful death, as soon as possible:
Twiggy: You’ve got a beautiful heart-shaped jaw, which shows wonderfully. This is my favorite photograph. And she just jumps out of that line for me. I love her. I think she’s great.
Miss J: What’s great about this is that you can also look beautiful in death.
Tyra: Today, when she came up, her face and just her whole thing was working.
Nigel: You look incredible in front of me here. You look beautiful in this picture. This is a full package right now. (later) I think Renee does photograph a little on the old side, but it’s still a beautiful face.
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