Portraits of Australian Criminals in the 1920s

[Frank Petronio]

Kind of a redundant use of two words isn't it?

However this copper was an artist!

http://www.laboiteverte.fr/portraits...s-annees-1920/

[jnantz]

thanks for this link frank ..
it amazes me how classy everyone
looked in the 1920s ...

[Iga]

I saw this book in Guggenheim Bilbao book shop some time ago. It was in English and short notes about folks pictured there was very interesting reading..
Thanks,
Igor.

[Marc B.]

More in terms of trying to save money, I always admired the early mug shots at the
Territorial Prison, in Yuma, AZ, USA.
Arizona didn't become a state until 1912, the last of the lower 48.
By using a mirror, they could get a face-on, and profile in one shot.

http://www.roadtripamerica.com/places/yuma.htm

[mdm]

This is a prime example of the Australian cultural cringe, theese are hosted in france. They are an odd lot in Australia. They should be very proud of theese.

[Brian C. Miller]

It really makes me wonder why they were arrested. I see that "E. Falleni" has two photos, one of him wearing what I guess is some kind of work shirt, and the other of him in a three-piece suit. I wonder if even mug shots were special events, so they got themselves dressed up for it.

[Steven Tribe]

Some criminology archives are full of high quality images.

The reason?

-They used quality equipment (Dallmeyer 19th C records show that many of their top objectives were sold direct to prisons!).

-Frequent photographic sessions - a veritable studio atmosphere was possible.

-Careful institutional storage (in many cases) whilst Photography Studios plates have mostly got thrown out (Norsigianitis). Private prints get "thinned out" with every new generation and storage is poor.

-Subject matter required sharp and not soft images.

[Donald Miller]

Great link Frank. Thanks for posting this.

[Paul Ewins]

These are from a book called "City of Shadows - Sydney Police Photographs 1912 - 1948" by Peter Doyle that was published back in 2005. There was an exhibition at the Police and Justice Museum at the same time. It is available on Amazon and I highly recommend it.

[jp]

You can dress um up but you can't take um out.