Revisiting the MoCP

Last week in class we again took a trip down to the Museum of Contemporary Photography to view the "Crime Unseen" exhibit. While I am not always blown away by the shows the MoCP puts on, I found "Crime Unseen" to be a clever premise for an exhibition which presented the viewer with a collection of work that was both connected by a cohesive theme, but also different enough where each artist in the show brought something different to the table.
Opening with Angela Strassheim's work was a strong decision both on part of the gallery as well as out tour guide. I feel Strassheim's photos most directly epitomize the the theme of the show. How does one photograph something that was unseen? This question could be posed towards any of the particular installations of the show, as well as the artists themselves. Strassheim's photos took the most direct and logical approach - you use forensic science to reveal hidden spray patterns from murder scenes long since committed. I was really impressed with the amount of effort it took to get the shots in the first place, which only enhanced the work's value in conjunction with the striking visuals. They are strong in their simplicity, but I wish there was a little something else going on in the images to make the images stand apart from one another a little more, but I imagine that's not the point of this project.
I personally found Christian Patterson's work (which we viewed second) to be really engaging. This is probably because I find a lot in common with my interests in photography. The idea of documenting the supposed tale of an urban legend to find out how much is true and how much is fiction is an interesting thing - especially when you begin to question where the line between fiction and reality really is. I think his work had good variety, though there were a few jarring differences. I was not entirely sure why he selected certain images to be black and white while others relied heavily on color, and I was also not particularly a fan of his "house of cards" image. I think in the context of the rest of the show it did not fit particularly well, though the metaphor is obvious.
Krista Wortendyke's photos on the top floor of the museum were certainly a unique study of not only crime in the city of Chicago, but the effects of seasonal events such as holidays on the human psyche. Everyone knows the winter holidays cause everyone a whole lot of stress, but it is interesting to see how homicide rates spike around that time of year. This project was conceptually very strong, but visually I was left feeling underwhelmed and a little confused at certain points. I did not care for how all the images seem to have been shot in spring or early fall, none of them having any of the visual cues of it being December in Chicago. I would have found it much more compelling to see the scene as it would have been on that specific day one year later. I was a little confused as to the random smattering of landscape-oriented pictures throughout the graph as well. Perhaps if there was a reason behind doing so it would make more sense, but seemingly without reason it is visually disruptive to the overall flow of the timeline.
All criticisms aside, I feel that this show is a valuable and successful accomplishment for the MoCP to check off it's to-do list. I feel this has been one of the more creative and well executed shows the museum has done in recent years, and would like to see what they come up with next.