Roobin. Joseph. 40 ans, né à Bourgneuf (Loire-Inférieure). Terrassier. Anarchiste. 2/3/94 1894

This is a mugshot from 1894, made by Alphonse Bertillon, the French criminologist who invented the mugshot. It depicts Joseph Roobin, a 40-year-old laborer and anarchist. Beyond its ostensible function as a tool of law enforcement, this photograph encapsulates anxieties about social order in late 19th-century France. The rise of anarchist movements, with their radical critique of state power, posed a direct challenge to established authority. Bertillon's mugshots sought to categorize and control individuals deemed threats to social stability, by creating a visual archive of deviance. The meticulous documentation—name, age, birthplace, occupation, and political affiliation—attempts to fix Roobin's identity within a framework of social control. To truly understand this image, one must delve into the history of criminology, the politics of anarchist movements, and the visual culture of surveillance in the late 19th century.