Silly Old Twit

Without these two photographs it is generally agreed that the ‘legend’ of the moors murders as we understand it or as it has come down to us might not and indeed probably would not exist. They are remarkable photo’s , but what exactly makes them so….Like most public photographs they do not flatter their subjects in any way….and it is the public nature of these images that we have to examine first.

Most public photographs ( passport/drivers permit/newspaper ) are intended for a large, and for the most part disinterested audience. Their purpose is to record a reality without commenting on it. They are , if you will , documents without editorial. Their purpose is functional and utilitarian. They do not try to tell us anything about the subject , indeed they ideally should do just the opposite recording the outward image and that alone. They do not require or want us to think about who or what these people are. They are , ‘for the record’ and for nothing else. They have no social function beyond keeping record. They neither elicit or require an emotional response. They are , above all else , neutral……

This at least is the theory , and for the most part that theory holds true but in one respect it starts to fall down….and that is when we come to consider the mug shot. The mug shot is a public (official/bureaucratic) photo intended in large measure for a private audience (police) . The fact that it sometimes has a second social function when published in the press is problematic to say the least. Why are mug shots published?. Most would agree that their publication is quite unnecessary. They are , in almost all instances , even less flattering than the general run of public photos. And our reaction to them is, almost without exception , emotional.

It’s not my purpose here to argue the rights or wrongs of these kind of public/private photos but to understand the power of the Brady/Hindley shots we must reflect on how these images came to us. And the first thing that strikes us is that they are images created under duress. This is no less true in the case of Brady and Hindley than it is of others.

Myra’s image has as they say been done to death. Myra as ‘hard bitch’ and ‘the most evil woman in Britain’. But strangely few , if any, have remarked on what must be it’s most interesting feature , it’s total lack of sexuality. It is after all an image of a young and not unattractive woman. Let me put it this way. It’s not uncommon for a man to seek out the image of a ’strong’ and even ‘cruel’ woman as an aid to sexual stimulation and yet no one would use this image of Myra for such a purpose. Whatever else it conveys , whatever overt or subliminal subtext we may look for in it it is peculiarly lacking in anything that pertains to eroticism , even in the most vivid imagination. The image of Brady is however quite sexual. The pouting lip….the sullen stare ….the hint of arrogance all make for what is , whether we are conscious of it or not , a sexual image. Almost everyone who writes of Brady remarks on his uncanny resemblance to Elvis Presley. Indeed the young Elvis might well pass for Brady’s son.

Brady’s photograph does not jump out at us in quite the same dramatic fashion as Hindley’s but the image is nonetheless far more powerful than Hindley’s….and more disturbing. There is little by way of shock or immediate dramatic impact when we first see it. If anything it is rather unimpressive and quite forgettable. If we were asked to recall this image in our minds after one cursory glance we would be hard pressed to do so. We would remember little were it not for those pouting lips….and it’s the lips that we remember. There is , if we are honest , totally honest , something erotic about the image of Brady. Even as a heterosexual man I am conscious of an almost animal sexuality lurking behind this images. I cannot imagine how a woman might respond to it but I can guess. And my guess is that most women are in large degree disturbed not so much by the images of Brady but by their reaction to it or rather their reaction to the sexuality inherent in the image.

Brady’s photograph has a truth that we don’t find with that of Hindley. There is no evidence to suggest that anyone thought of Myra as a
‘hard bitch’ prior to her arrest and the children she picked up for Brady must have seen her as no more and no less than a ‘nice lady’. The image we have of her then by way of her mug shot is demonstrable a false one. Brady on the other hand , prior to his arrest (and afterwards) is refereed to almost exclusively in terms of his good looks…..he is likened to Presley with all that that implies. Both photographs were as I stated earlier taken under duress and in Brady’s this translate itself into a ’smoldering’ aspect which heightens the sexual element whereas with Hindely it does no more that exaggerate the sense we have of an animal caught in the headlights. All factors in these photos seem to have the effect of dehumanising Hindley so much so that after all these years we are left with image devoid of any substance. With Brady his mug shot has the obviously unintentional effect of paradoxically humanising him. The more we examine it the more we are aware that this is indeed a flesh and blood person. The image staring back at us is all too real , and disturbing.

The most important element in these photographs is however not to be found in the photographs themselves but in what we , the viewer bring to them , our fears and prejudices and our cultural conditioning. And the ‘popularity’ of these mug shots , the iconic status they have achieved is down to what we bring to the image. They are both (Hindley’s in particular) classical images. They conform to the same rules as do the images we might see of the ancient Greeks or classic architecture. They have a symmetry and aspect that we recognise even it we don’t understand it. This is , in part , intentional….the photographer seeks for a ‘good shot’ and in this instance he/they outdid themselves. These images are historic , ie they refer to something in the past and the fact that they were taken in the first place implies a story that preceded them. Like history we see them in retrospect. Our view is necessarily distorted.

We are told that the camera never lies and here indeed is the proof. Both Brady and Hindley are outsiders but not in the way that many still choose to believe. It’s not their crimes that define their outsider status. They were outsiders first and their crimes were no more than an expression of this reality. Brady has always insisted that these crimes were a philosophical exercise , he freely admits to a sexual element , but insists that philosophy not lust was the motivation. And Brady is doing no more than stating what is obvious to any informed student of these crimes. To this day many feel the need to reject this fact , they feel that to credit him with such a motive is somehow to give him a significance , a credibility he does not deserve. There is also an element of snobbery in this , “What would a Glasgow street thug know of philosophy”. The fact that Brady’s interests are for the most part of an intellectual nature is something they feel compelled to deny , in spite of the evidence to the contrary. Neither Hindley nor Brady killed for sexual gratification. If that was their motive they would have in large degree been forgotten by now. They killed to realise , to give flesh so to speak to their philosophy, to their sense of being outsiders…”and the word became flesh” Their crimes had an inevitability about them. Brady never stalked children , he did not act under some compulsion. He had no unnatural interest in children. He did of course pick child victims and photographed at least one in pornographic poses but this was almost incidental to the acts themselves , the object of the exercise was not the children , he was if anything indifferent to his victims……this very indifference is what marks him and Hindley out from the crowd.

The real power of these photographs is that they capture this reality. We are faced with two people who look out at us from their world. They have little if any interest in what we might think of them. Brady set out, like Raskolnikov , to become Napoleon and he succeeded. In spite of what many choose to believe , Brady won. Protesting otherwise is futile. He has our attention. He has made his point and in his terms made it well. We are , regardless of how we try to square the circle , an audience that he created. We seek out his image. We are drawn to it…These images of Hindley and Brady are their ultimate validation….life , their life, has literally become art.

Image making is fundamental to us as human beings. The first humans to exist on this planet turned to image making to define their world and in the process of course defined themselves as human. They also used images as a form of control over a wild and frightening space in which they found themselves. Image making as magic. Image making as religion. And be it Hitler or Christ it’s the image that often speaks the loudest and has the last word.

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