Case Study

With The Verdict: The Christina Boyer Case, Dutch photographer Jan Banning presents a multi-layered case study of the US criminal justice system. The series delves deep into a three-decade-old murder case in the US State of Georgia. On 14 April 1992, twenty-two-year-old Christina Boyer was arrested on suspicion of killing her young daughter Amber, and was subsequently sentenced to life imprisonment.

Jan Banning’s exhibition and accompanying book are the culmination of extensive research spanning several years. Documentary photographs, staged images and a detailed essay are combined to create an intense account of the events surrounding Christina Boyer’s conviction in the aftermath of her daughter’s death.

In meticulous detail, Banning describes the assessments of renowned medical experts, and severely criticises the role of the media. His own, visual interpretations of specific elements of the story are placed in a dialogue with personal material provided by Christina Boyer herself: excerpts from her diary, images from her family photo album, and texts in which she describes her associative responses to Banning’s images of the South. Through these insights into her inner world, viewers also gain an impression of how decades behind bars might influence a person’s perception of the visual world.