High-Profile Crime Scenes Frame DPW Photographer's Career

Robert Feuerstein works in the Department of Public Works Cartographic Services as a webmaster and photographic audio/visual specialist. Before joining the County, Feuerstein worked in the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office and worked on some of the highest profile criminal cases of the past few decades.

He’s been witness to the aftermaths of some of the biggest crimes in southern California over the past few decades but the highlight of Robert Feuerstein’s career as a criminal photographer might have been meeting his wife at a crime scene.

Feuerstein, who works as a webmaster and photographic audio/visual specialist for the San Diego County Department of Public Works, previously worked for the Los Angeles District Attorney’s office and photographed the crime scenes for the trials of O.J. Simpson, the Menendez brothers and Heidi Fleiss.

“I met my wife at a crime scene when I was working for the DA’s office,” he said. “She caught her boss stealing money from a casino and she was in charge of what they call the ‘eye in the sky’ – the surveillance cameras.”

It was Feuerstein’s job to go out to the casino, view the videotape evidence and get the necessary footage and images that showed the man taking the money. Like most cases, it required he work long hours. 

“I spent two days there and I was hungry,” he said. “She (his future wife) said, ‘You want something to eat? I’ll take you out.’”

Their dinner discussion quickly turned to photography, a passion they both shared.

“We got to know each other and we got married down the pipeline.”

Feuerstein’s photography skills developed early. He was initially interested in taking photos because his father took it up as a hobby and curiosity got the best of him.

“My dad would close the bathroom door and I didn’t know what was going on in there, and then all of the sudden he would come out with some film negatives and that started me with photography,” Feuerstein said.

He quickly became known as the audio/visual guy around school and started to expand his skill set.

“I lived in Redondo Beach and Torrance and I had a lot of friends that were surfing and I was taking a lot of pictures of them,” he said.

That was where Feuerstein would have his first brush with fame and realize that photography was talent that got him access to places he wouldn’t normally be able to experience.

One of the other guys photographing surfers at the same time was Bruce Brown. Brown is widely credited with changing society’s impression of surfers with his surfing photography and movies, including the classic Endless Summer.

Feuerstein also befriended the crew of the Goodyear Blimp, which was anchored in nearby Gardena. He would go photograph the airship and crew and they in turn provided him with free rides. Riding his bike from Redondo Beach to Gardena, he met Carroll Shelby, the designer of the Shelby Mustangs for the Ford Motor Company, who did all his design work in a garage across from the blimp base.

“This thing has opened up doors,” he said. “I’ve been places most people have never been.”

Not long after that, Feuerstein was doing photography for local newspapers that got him access to the Academy Awards and NBA games. Once he entered El Camino Junior College, he photographed anything that happened on campus and that allowed him to meet Ansel Adams who was appearing at the campus theater.

While going to school he worked several jobs gaining skills in several areas of the photography business, and it was at one of those jobs that he made the connection that led to his 18-year career as a crime scene photographer. He would develop film for a police officer who mentioned there was an opening for a photographer in the DA’s office.

He quickly learned there was no such thing as a routine day and you had to be prepared to work long hours on a moment’s notice.

“You come to work and you’re doing your routine and then all of the sudden you get a call on a Friday afternoon, ‘Bob, hop in the car, you’re going to a crime scene with me.’ And it’s the OJ Simpson case.”

He got involved with the case when Simpson’s maid testified during trial that she saw him come home and enter the house the night of the murders. Feuerstein had to go photograph and document what the maid saw out the window and ended up putting in an 18-hour day.

“This is what the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department’s criminal photographers do day in and day out,” he said. “They’re doing their lab work, they’re doing their testing and then all of the sudden they get a call and they’re out at a crime scene 12 to 30 hours without any sleep, and that’s an average crime scene.”

Feuerstein said every case is handled the same way. There is a procedure that is followed and it’s the job of the photographer to frame the evidence as neutrally as possible.

“I don’t care what the name of the person is, or what the body is or whatever,” he said. “I have to treat it as a technical problem that I have to solve and my mental emotions have to be in control.

“I can’t get wrapped up with what’s going on around me. That’s not my job.”

Even though he’s not actively working crime scenes anymore, it doesn’t mean Feuerstein has slowed down any. He assists the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department and the Public Defender’s office with video and audio enhancement and data recovery. He documents major road projects for the County.

He also spends plenty of time teaching others, including helping the County’s Department of Agriculture, Weights & Measures or Department of Planning Services inspectors who have to go out and photograph evidence of infractions.

“I teach them how to photograph with whatever camera they have - anything from a cell phone to a $3,000 camera.”

He’s also a popular request for presentations at several County library branches. He shares everything from tales of crime scenes to what cameras to buy around the holidays or how to use photo editing software.

“Being a photographer – there’s more to it than meets the eye,” Feuerstein said. “There are a lot of things people take for granted in images, but a good photographer knows how to control all (the elements) and know how what the end results in going to be in his head and make it turn out that way somehow.”