The Evidence Was Always There: Why I Became a Photographer

I was sitting watching Winter on ITV, and it has brought back something I haven’t really talked about.

A few months ago, I interviewed with the police for a Crime Scene Investigator position.

This wasn’t just another photography-related job I fancied trying.

It was a dream I’d carried with me for around 30 years — to use my photography in forensics.

Long before photographing weddings, properties and commercial work, teaching photography, or even pointing a camera at LEGO, forensic photography absolutely fascinated me.

There was something about using a camera not to create a beautiful image, but to record exactly what was there.

No artistic interpretation. No making something look better. Just observation, accuracy and evidence.

Perhaps the part that has always stayed with me most is the thought that photography can help someone who can no longer speak for themselves.

That might sound a little morbid, but I’ve never seen it that way.

A photograph could preserve something important, help investigators understand what happened and perhaps provide answers for the people left behind.

I always felt I could do that.

Attention to detail has always been hugely important in the way I work as a photographer. In my everyday work, noticing something others might miss can make a better photograph.

And perhaps all those years photographing properties have been training me to walk into a room, observe everything and document exactly what I find. 😂

In forensic photography, of course, that ability could mean considerably more.

And actually, that dream very nearly became a reality a long time ago.

While studying for my HND in Photography, I had an opportunity to do work experience connected with the police. I was all set to go, but life took me in another direction and I didn’t take that opportunity.

I’ve occasionally wondered over the years where that path might have led.

Would my photography career have looked completely different?

Would I have ended up working in forensics?

I’ll never know.

Instead, photography took me down its own incredible road. Over more than 30 years I’ve photographed people, places, weddings, properties and everything in between.

I’ve gone from film and darkrooms to digital photography, drones and technology I couldn’t have imagined when I first picked up a camera.

But that dream never completely disappeared.

And then, decades later, that old door suddenly appeared again.

This time, I walked through it.

I applied for a CSI position and found myself sitting in an interview with the police for the job I’d dreamed about all those years ago.

I remember thinking:

I’m actually here. I finally tried.

And then, of course, reality hit.

Crime scenes. Forensics. Evidence. Helping piece together what happened.

I genuinely thought I could do it.

Then another thought entered my head…

Closing reflection

I suppose if there’s one thing I’ve learned from all of this, it’s that the dreams we have when we’re younger don’t necessarily disappear just because life takes us somewhere else.

Sometimes they sit quietly in the background while we get on with living.

Then, years later, something happens that reminds us they’re still there.

I didn’t get the job, but I did something perhaps just as important — I finally gave that 30-year-old dream a chance.

And I’m really glad I did.

Because whatever age you are, maybe the question isn’t “Is it too late?”

Maybe it’s simply…

“What if I tried?”

Until next time,

Bev x