Two trollies face each other from opposite sides of a metal fence. A tiny shoe perches on top of a bollard in the middle of the pavement. Crumpled and mud-covered, a scrap of paper lies on the floor outside a shed. We see strange sights every day. When we don’t pay attention to their inherent mystery, these observations get absorbed into the fabric of the mundane and we don’t give them another thought. But what happens when we do ask ourselves: what is the story behind that? Dutch collagist, photographer and writer Laura Chen (b. 1997) opens our eyes to these possibilities in her latest series, Being Framed. It follows fictional 1970s Detective Chief Inspector (DCI) Dean Wilson in the Department of Marginalised Cases (DMC). It’s an office dedicated to issues that the traditional criminal justice system would call “petty offences and misdemeanours,” from squabbles between neighbours to broken possessions. Images are presented inside a case file, which looks like it has been plucked straight from DCI Wilson’s police cabinet. Chen’s work will be part of a group show at Impressions Gallery, called Performing Histories / Histories Re-Imagined. The exhibition offers an insight into lens-based artwork that critically engages with “the archive” to re-address the past and bring to the fore histories that have been overlooked. It presents work from Alba Zari, Amin Yousefi, Eleonora Agostini, Emi O’Connell, Jermaine Francis, Odette England and Tarrah Krajnak. We caught up with Chen to talk about Being Framed, her process of putting the project together, approach to street photography and the camera’s power “of deception and illusion.”
A: Being Framed developed from a character you created called Detective Chief Inspector Dean Wilson, the Head of the Department of Marginalised Cases (DMC). Can you describe this detective to us? How does he relate to this series?
LC: The protagonist of this story is as mysterious and ambiguous as the crimes that he investigates. His identity is never revealed but his personality is present in every image – he’s curious, eccentric and idiosyncratic. From a young age, DCI Wilson took minor wrongdoings very seriously. Later in life, he began specialising in peculiar crimes and dedicated all his time to what the traditional, prevailing criminal justice system would consider “petty offences and misdemeanours”. From secret gatherings and heated arguments with next-door neighbours, to stolen and broken possessions — it was his duty to handle the disputes between members of the community, treating each case equally and fairly. DCI Wilson embodies unconventionality and deviation; recurring interests of mine that I explore throughout my wider practice, and also in my project Being Framed, where fact and fiction become intertwined.
A: You’ve presented Being Framed as an authentic 1970s police report, filled with black and white evidence photographs. How did you develop this idea?
LC: The contents of the eventual police report came first and foremost. After some time, I had taken so many photographs that I arrived at a point where I had to make sense of all the images and find them a home. I decided to house this “evidence” that I was gathering in a dossier that appears as though it came straight out of a detective’s office filing cabinet. When starting the project, I didn’t want to abandon any preconceived ideas of what I thought a police case file looks like or should look like. Rather, I wanted to tune into the vision I could already see in my mind, which was born out of many years of watching crime series/films and reading detective novels – a romanticised version of the truth. What initially came to mind was a brown paper file with the words “confidential and classified information” or “top secret” stamped on the front cover in black ink.
A: In what ways has the concept changed since your initial plans?
LC: The concept of the police report developed over time, but the blueprint in terms of presentation remained the same. Designed to highlight the arbitrary assortment of content via various inserts, fold-outs and interleaved supporting materials, the file is finished off with gold fixtures and a string tie circle closure. Thin newsprint paper combined with heavy coatings of ink allows for images to press through the page, leaving a trace of the previous image as you turn to the next page. It’s like a lingering clue that stays in your mind and helps you make sense of the pieces of evidence that follow. These are interspersed with thicker pages that resemble photocopies of confidential and personal documents. Informed by research into the customs and formalities of police department photographers and their understanding of the medium, I employ the techniques and aesthetics of photojournalism and forensic photography. The works is also inspired and influenced by the visual and image-making culture of the 70s, so it is littered with anachronisms that allow for a playful self-referentiality.
A: The collection includes monochromatic still life shots, photo collages and portraits. Could you tell us about your process creating these pieces?
LC: The project is divided into two main elements or chapters: the crime scene (on location) and the space where it’s studied (the detective’s office). With a juvenile spirit, I captured the “evidence” I envisioned in front of me when walking the city streets. Here, I photographed my encounters with people or objects – pretty much anything that I feel has a “suspicious” quality. Usually, it’s not until I review all the images that I start to join the dots. I begin to see correlations between certain images — whether odd juxtapositions or lucky coincidences — that I then put together to initiate a story. Working retrospectively, I use the images to prompt my writing. What is it that I want to say with this image?
To create the set designs and staged still life shots of the detective office, I sourced and made my own props. I found bits in charity shops and used my own belongings: analog cameras, film canisters, cassette tapes, stationary supplies, as well as pictures I’d taken that were used as part of the decor, pinned on an evidence board that was then rephotographed again. Luckily for me, I lived in a house-share in London at the time and my landlord was a retired criminologist, so fate was in my favour. He had all kinds of “souvenirs” from his time as a professor working both in and with the force, so I incorporated lots of the memorabilia (police department coffee mug, trophies, evidence boxes) alongside objects that I sourced from elsewhere (crime scene tape and evidence markers). His office was like a museum with hundreds of books and trinkets – the ideal backdrop for many of the pictures I took as part of this project. I also designed and built small scale sets in other rooms around the house. As for the collages, I look for visual triggers in the pictures or start scribbling down and cutting out random words from magazines that I then formulate into a question or set of sentences that are intentionally cryptic and reveal very little about the work, but hopefully enough to keep the viewer engaged and guessing.
A: One striking piece shows a tree wrapped in police tape that declares “Crime Scene-Do Not Enter.” Could you tell us more about this photograph?
LC: Out of all the on-location shots from this project, this photograph of the tree is one of only three that was staged. Every other on-location picture shows the object, person or place captured exactly how I encountered them on my photowalk, with no intervention. During the making of this project (and still now on a regular basis), do I bump into many strange scenes on the street that seem implausible and unthinkable, but that actually presented themselves to me in real life. Things that I couldn’t have made up or scripted: handcuffs around a cycle stand, mops in trees, a lost shoe and footprint in freshly poured concrete, a flyer on a tree asking for help to find a lost baby rabbit, or a burglar-like black knitted beanie left on the ground in front of a barbed wired fence.
I took that photograph of the crime scene taped tree very late at night in a park. I wanted to wait for it to become completely dark and quiet outside, and searched for a lonely tree so that there would be nothing too distracting in the backdrop when using my flash to create the ominous effect. I found this tree that had a sort of ‘gunshot’ mark on the bark and then I wrapped around this “Crime Scene-Do Not Enter” tape below it.
A: As viewers look closer at the series, we find the hidden anachronisms and mysterious elements you’ve added to challenge our perception of authenticity. What are your thoughts on photography’s ability to give a distorted or incomplete view of reality?
LC: Over the past few years, I’ve become fascinated by the complexity of visual evidence and the idea of deception and illusion, which I found to be the most powerful attributes of photography. Photography’s role as a medium with visual accuracy has been closely linked to claims of objectivity and factuality throughout history. This common and prevalent belief that photographs accurately depict reality is both captivating and concerning. It’s remarkable how you can influence and direct the gaze of the viewer with careful and subtle persuasion.
Operating at the edge of narrative plausibility, Being Framed tampers with the truth for the sake of storytelling and illustration. I set out to explore the ambivalent status of the photographic medium and to construct something visually enigmatic and mysterious; a cryptic space that oscillates between reality and fantasy, the past and the present. Revolving around issues of pretence, surveillance and hypothesis, I explore speculative photography and parafiction to initiate something dark, moody and gritty, like a typical film noir. The resulting images are hard to pinpoint, because they feel both old-fashioned and modern. They appear to be serious, yet have a humorous undertone.
A: What would you like viewers to take away after seeing Being Framed?
LC: Embrace your inner-detective and your inner-child. They’re more alike than you might think. I promise it’s not only fun, but also very illuminating. Look, describe and speculate, then leave the rest to your imagination.
A: What projects are you working on now?
LC: I really enjoyed exploring fiction within my work, so I will probably continue to explore this area of interest as a starting point for another project. I’m a musician, in addition to being a visual artist. I’m also fascinated by how something inherently impalpable, like music, could become visual, even tangible. It’s a vast and abstract concept that I potentially would like to give some more thought. There’s plenty of research to do first. Finding a suitable method to convert and translate sound into something perceptible sounds like a fun challenge.
Impressions Gallery, Performing Histories / Histories Re-Imagined | Until 31 August
Words: Diana Bestwish Tetteh and Laura Chen
Image Credits:
- In Search of Law and Order, from the series Being Framed, 2022 © Laura Chen.
- Cut Them Out and Frame Them, from the series Being Framed, 2022 © Laura Chen.
- Crime Scene – Do Not Enter, from the series Being Framed, 2022 © Laura Chen.
- DCI Dean Wilson’s Office #2, from the series Being Framed, 2022 © Laura Chen.
- Inmate on the Run, from the series Being Framed, 2022 © Laura Chen.
- In Search of Law and Order, from the series Being Framed, 2022 © Laura Chen.
- Cigarette Break, from the series Being Framed, 2022 © Laura Chen.
