Vintage Mug Photos From The 1920's - Police Archives

[Johnmcd]

Very interesting, especially given the information about the subjects.

http://twistedsifter.com/2011/05/vintage-mugshots-from-1920s-black-white/

I wonder what camera they would have used?

Cheers - John

 

[mfogiel]

Great stuff. I have particularly enjoyed the portrait of Herbert Ellis, and also of the guy, who "refused to open his eyes". I imagine, they were using one of the wooden box cameras of the time.

 

[koven]

Australian Criminals had charisma.

 

[Sejanus.Aelianus]

Australian Criminals had charisma.

Nope. Just as depressingly normal as any other criminal. 🙁

 

[brainwood]

Fascinating set of photos. 'Frank Murray' is a great shot - love the hair.

They're clearly large negs as many have been written on but was this a special camera to expose two shots on one plate or was it just skill/guess work with the dark slide ?

 

[Johnmcd]

Australian Criminals had charisma.

Yes, it seems that way. Some of them had a smirk on their face like this wasn't their first portrait session with the law or they didn't think the charges would stick. Others have a look of despair. The link to the women's photos is particularly interesting. They all look much older than we would expect these days. Hard times.

These are the first vintage images that seemed 'real' to me. There is a story behind the eyes in every image. Previously old photos always seemed 'fake' or even slightly ludicrous and as a result the human element was always lost for me. Not with these. They seem like they could have been taken yesterday.

 

[Johnmcd]

Fascinating set of photos. 'Frank Murray' is a great shot - love the hair.

They're clearly large negs as many have been written on but was this a special camera to expose two shots on one plate or was it just skill/guess work with the dark slide ?

'In 1990 the Historic Houses Trust rescued a remarkable collection of NSW Police forensic photographs from a flooded warehouse in Lidcombe. Created between 1912 and 1964, the archive contains approximately 130,000 glass plate negatives depicting crime scenes, police activities, forensic evidence and mug shots and may be the biggest police photography collection in the southern hemisphere. The Historic Houses Trust has the job of conserving, repackaging, digitising, researching and cataloguing the archives contents, for which original record systems have been lost.'

Glass plate negs. What a collection! Well we were all convicts once 🙂

 

[MikeAUS]

Excellent! Thanks for posting the link ...

 

[swoop]

Even scum wore suits back then. Now they wear Ed Hardy t-shirts, shoes without laces and pants that hang way below where they should.

 

[_goodtimez]

Nice pictures. I love to see those weird (for now) haircuts 🙂

 

[Bill58]

The "ladies" looked tougher than the men.

 

[burancap]

Great stuff. Thanks!

 

[ricnak]

Some smooth dudes there. Thanks for sharing.

 

[MichaelW]

The "ladies" looked tougher than the men.

Some of them were. Two of the main crime bosses of Sydney's "razor gangs" era were women. Research Kate Leigh and Tilly Devine if curious.

 

[helen.HH]

Wonderful !!
Stylish Mug Shots indeed .... Thank You for the link

 

[Jockos]

Would it be possible to get that look without a large format camera?

 

[f16sunshine]

Very nice share. Thank you!
They let them keep their hats on for Mugshots?... Wild!

 

[SausalitoDog]

Having just recently visited the Mob Museum in Las Vegas, these were immensely interesting.

Thanks for posting

 

[djhurley92]

Would it be possible to get that look without a large format camera?

I reckon you could get depth of field reasonably close on 35mm film with a fast lens, but I think most of the look comes from the film being orthochromatic, judging from how some (supposedly blue-eyed) people have piercing white irises. And the dark skin tones. So use a cyan filter or shoot in colour and edit the channels in photoshop to replicate orthochromatic film.

Also, find some criminals from the 20s in period outfits, a large empty room with dark, damp walls, write on the negatives backwards in tiny handwriting, and scrape the edges of the film with a razor.

 

[budajoe69]

Awesome find...very cool -- man, criminals of yesteryear had some style to their dress.