“In the criminal justice system, there are two separate yet equally important groups: the police, who investigate crime, and the attorneys, who prosecute the offenders,” goes the opening to Law & Order .

And on the set of the NBC drama where their stories play out lurks a still photographer named Jessica Burstein, who captures the action in gritty and glorious black and white.

Now visitors to the George Eastman House, 900 East Ave., can see some of Burstein's work in an exhibit titled “Law & Order: Crime Scenes.”

""Dresing the Dead Body"" from Law and Order's 276th episode: ""Oxymoron"".

A still photograph from ""Ego"", Law and Order's 246th episode.

A still photograph from ""Sanctuary"", Law and Order's 85th episode.

""Begin Shooting Scene Two"" from Law and Order's 246th episode.

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Exhibitions manager Julia Unruh Kracke, 30, got the idea for the show (which runs through Sunday, April 10) after reading series creator Dick Wolf's book of the same name.

The tome, a literary tribute to Law & Order , is illustrated by more than 100 images by Burstein, the series' official photographer for the past 11 of its record 15 seasons.

“I thought, ‘Wow, this would make a really great exhibition,'” Unruh Kracke says.

About 30 photos from the book comprise the exhibit, which is anchored by a bank of TV monitors playing the show's opening murder scenes.

Some of the pictures, taken during the filming of those scenes, mimic crime-scene photos. “Simply put, it was my intention, with these images, to create ‘trompe l'oeil,' to fool or deceive the eye,” Burstein writes in her artist's statement. Other shots chronicle what happens between takes.

And although it might sound slick and modern, “Law & Order: Crime Scenes” references “a very old concept,” says Unruh Kracke, “photographs of death.”

Shutter speeds lasting 15 minutes were the norm back in 1839 when photography was first introduced to the world, according to Michael L. Carlebach in his book, The Origins of Photojournalism in America .

So shooting a portrait postmortem “was one way to get a still photograph of someone that wasn't blurry,” Unruh Kracke explains.

Of course, even though they are incredibly death-like, Burstein's stills of stiffs are the stuff of fiction, an idea reinforced by the accompanying behind-the-scenes pictures.

One of them, a favorite of Unruh Kracke's, shows a young actress named Amy Dorris (an “old pro at playing dead,” writes Burstein in her exhibit notes) looking up from a morgue table and smiling. Another shows “a dead body growling, holding out his arms and lunging for people's necks” after a scene wraps, Burstein writes.

The supporting images also help to dispel the illusions created by the TV show, says Ola Dlugosz, 25, the exhibit's chief preparator.

Plus, she says, “I enjoy the irony of a picture of a corpse eating cheese and crackers.”