Photography and it's impact on the obsession with Jack the Ripper

I truly believe that without the release of the morgue photographs of Jack the Ripper's killings that the obsession with the world's 'first serial killer' would not be as great, perhaps not even exist.

The horrific photographs, though in sepia/black and white and fairly unclear, still have an impact on today's viewer. They are extremely graphic, showing the immense damage he caused to his victims, even rendering a couple of them unrecognisable by mutilating their faces so badly.

In today's society it is very unlikely that photographs of this nature would be released for many years after the crime - if at all. Though there are some websites on the internet which provide this kind of imagery of bloody murder scenes. (http://www.rotters.com)



Patricia Cornwell gives information about the use of photography in the late 1800s in her book 'Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper Case Closed'.

Mortuary photographs were made with a big wooden box camera that could shoot only directly ahead. Bodies the police needed to photograph had to be stood up or propped upright against the dead-house wall because the camera could not be pointed down or at an angle. Sometimes the nude dead body was hung on the wall with a hook, nail, or peg at the nape of the neck. A close inspection of the photograph of a later victim, Catherine Eddows, shows her nude body suspended, one foot barely touching the floor.

Cornwell goes onto say:

These grim and degrading photographs were for purposes of identification and were not made public.

I feel that Cornwell's book is presumptious because even though she is very qualified in her field, I personally believe it will never be proved who Jack the Ripper was - no matter who tries we will never truly know and the title of her book is wrong to think her version is correct.


History of photography

Information about the history of photography can be found on the Inventors website as follows:

http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa111100a.htm

Photography timeline

1000
The first pinhole camera was invented by Alhazen (Ibn Al-Haytham), a great authority on optics in the Middle Ages. He explained why the picture was upside down.

1600s
Della Porta reinvented the pinhole camera. Apparently he was the first European to publish any information on the pinhole camera. He is often incorrectly credited with its invention.

1814
Joseph Nicéphore Niépce was the first person to take a photograph in 1814. He took the picture by setting up a machine called the camera obscura in the window of his home in France. It took eight hours for the camera to take the picture.

1835
Englishmen, Henry F. Talbot invents Calotype photography

1839
Frenchmen, Louis Daguerre and J.N. Niepce co-invent Daguerreotype photography.

1877
Eadweard Muybridge invents the first moving pictures.



1884
George Eastman patents paper-strip photographic film.
George Eastman wanted to simplify photography and make it available to everyone, not just trained photographers. In 1883, Eastman announced the invention of photographic film in rolls. Kodak the company was born in 1888 when the first Kodak camera entered the market. Pre-loaded with enough film for 100 exposures, the Kodak camera could easily be carried and handheld during its operation. After the film was exposed (all the shots taken), the whole camera was returned to the Kodak company in Rochester, New York, where the film was developed, prints were made, new photographic film was inserted, and then the camera and prints were returned to the customer.

Further information about the victims and their mortuary photographs can be found at:
http://www.casebook.org/victims

Claire