Is Photography a Method of Social Control?
From Mug Shots to Crime Scene Photos, a New Exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art Explores How the Camera Casts Suspicion
Paris, 1888: An eccentric police officer named Alphonse Bertillon creates a new way of looking at criminals or suspected criminals. Law enforcement has already been dabbling with the relatively new medium of photography. Some police departments collect “rogues galleries” of portraits. But Bertillon wants to systematize. He proposes a single procedure. One front view, one side. Standard lighting and angles. His method catches on—in France, across Europe, in the U.S. The mug shot is born.
The mug shot might be a particularly clear connection between photography and law enforcement, but it’s …