Photographic truth and evidence

Title
Photographic truth and evidence
Publication Date
2012
Author(s)
Porter, Glenn
Kennedy, Michael
Type of document
Journal Article
Language
en
Entity Type
Publication
Publisher
Taylor & Francis
Place of publication
United Kingdom
DOI
10.1080/00450618.2011.634835
UNE publication id
une:1959.11/27421
Abstract
The application of visual material is becoming increasingly more prominent when presenting forensic evidence in contemporary courts. This paper examines how photographic evidence is used as a means of presenting facts relating to evidence and whether the concept of photographic truth actually exists and advances knowledge. This paper suggests that the obligatory telling of truth when presenting evidence should also extend into the showing of the truth when visual narratives become dominant within forensic evidence. It further challenges the notion that photographs, due to the mechanistic nature of the camera, produce naturally objective and independent evidence that reinforces the search for the truth. Faithful contextualisation of photographic evidence is essential when the reliability of this form of evidence is deliberated.
Link
Citation
Australian Journal of Forensic Sciences, 44(2), p. 183-192
ISSN
1834-562X
0045-0618
Start page
183
End page
192

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