Found Friday

The thing I love most about found photos is the sense of mystery they stir up.  Some mysteries were quite literally stirred up with the release of a collection of mug shots from Sydney, Australia that were taken between 1910 and 1930.

NPR has a very interesting article about the collection of mug shots. The article brings about one very interesting point: It goes without saying that these are not like today's mug shots. For one, because unlike today's criminals, many of these people had never before been photographed. Posing for a portrait was kind of a big deal. Not only can these pictures be appreciated on an artistic level, but they are also just so intriguing, like something out of a movie. Very intriguing indeed!

Full NPR article here


The plot thickens! From the official record:

Mug shot of Hazel McGuinness, Central Police Station, Sydney, 26 July 1929

Special Photograph no. D32 (Drug Bureau photograph).

Hazel McGuinness was charged along with her mother Ada McGuiness with having cocaine (in substantial quantities) illegally in her possession. Police described a raid on the McGuinnesses' Darlinghurst house during which the mother Ada threw a hand bag containing packets of cocaine to her daughter, shouting, 'Run Hazel!'. Despite that, detectives spoke up for Hazel McGuinness in court, arguing that she had been led into crime by her mother ('the most evil woman in Sydney') who had raised her in 'an atmosphere of immorality and dope'. Hazel was given a suspended sentence.

Ada, Hazel's mother

This picture is one of a series of around 2500 "special photographs" taken by New South Wales Police Department photographers between 1910 and 1930. These "special photographs" were mostly taken in the cells at the Central Police Station, Sydney and are, as curator Peter Doyle explains, of "men and women recently plucked from the street, often still animated by the dramas surrounding their apprehension". Doyle suggests that, compared with the subjects of prison mug shots, "the subjects of the Special Photographs seem to have been allowed - perhaps invited - to position and compose themselves for the camera as they liked. Their photographic identity thus seems constructed out of a potent alchemy of inborn disposition, personal history, learned habits and idiosyncrasies, chosen personal style (haircut, clothing, accessories) and physical characteristics."