crime scene amsterdam
The 'Crime Scene Amsterdam' photo exhibition at Foam shows real crime scenes and real victims from police archives, taken between 1965 and 1985. Looking at these photographs will make you feel like a disaster tourist (to use a Dutchism), and reviewing them merely as art seems somehow irreverent.
At the same time, they are indeed of a "sinister, mysterious beauty." Taken out of their context, except for brief captions, the photographs become fragments of stories that leave you wondering what happened there and who these people were. Though some images are quite graphic, most evocative are the ones that show little - an empty "home interior after abuse," or a pair of bloodstained pumps on fireworks-strewn asphalt - but imply all the more in their carefully recorded details.
No images here - you can go see for yourself, at Foam until February 25.