Redheaded Peckerwood - Christian Patterson

This book was recommended to me by fellow students at an OCA TV group meeting (thanks, John). I'd presented my 'Rubber Flapper' work and the discussion had moved on to my ideas for presenting the work in book format.

Redheaded Peckerwood is a book that visualizes the true-life story of Charles Starkweather and Caril Ann Fugate. In 1957 the couple went on a road-trip shooting spree across Wyoming and Nebraska. The book contains a combination of trial photographs from the newspapers of the day, the photographer's images of described events, places the couple visited and reproductions of evidence often found on the victim's bodies. The book has an intriguing mix of the real and the imagined.

The introduction is in the form of a small booklet attached to the inside cover. It looks like it is typed on a mechanical typewriter and the fold-out format is an indication of the overall quirkiness of the book to come.

The layout and picture format are what really interested me. The images jump about from page to page. They change ratio and orientation. Analysing the way the spreads are set out will be really useful in helping to inform my 'Rubber Flapper' book design ideas.

One of the most interesting aspects of the book is the aforementioned pieces of evidence. They are inserted between the pages in their original ratios. For example, there is a gas station receipt that is much smaller than the book pages. It looked almost like it had been placed between the pages as a bookmark. Later in the book, a larger fold-out sheet, containing a poem, helps to add a sense of being able to touch real life artifacts. These little changes in format are interesting ways to enhance the narrative and are very effective.

Juxtaposition is used very effectively to visually enrich the narrative. We know from the books introduction that Robert Colvert, a young gas station attendant, was murdered by Starkweather. So when we see a brightly painted advertisement 'Ask for Ethyl' facing another image of a luminous oil spill we are left in no doubt about the metaphor - for the life that was shed on the concrete of a gas station forecourt.

There are other metaphors for murder too. Starkweather and Fugate murder a number of 15 year old Fugate's relatives along the way. Bullet holes in walls; a small knife protruding from peeling plasterwork - spilled ink. As we turn the pages we are taken on a death-trip across sombre landscapes; dirty beds with rumpled sheets; telephone wires in old houses - telling a tale of flight through the landscape; sleep captured fitfully and ill at ease.

The most compelling aspect of Redheaded Peckerwood is the seamless integration of real and imagined events, blended and brought together. As the viewer we do not know what is real or imagined - nor do we care. We are on our own vouyeuristic road-trip. Just like Starkweather and Fugate we've seen this movie before. We already know what the ending will be.