Adnet. Clotilde. 19 ans, née en décembre 74 à Argentant (Orne). Brodeuse. Anarchiste. Fichée le 7/1/94. 1894

This is a mugshot of Clotilde Adnet, a nineteen-year-old anarchist seamstress, taken in France by Alphonse Bertillon in 1894. Bertillon was the head of criminal identification for the Paris police. He pioneered anthropometry, or precise body measurements, as a tool of surveillance and control. His system was adopted worldwide. This image is not just a portrait, it's a document of state power, revealing anxieties about social unrest during a time of growing anarchist movements. The photograph reduces Adnet to a set of data points, stripping her of individuality and marking her as a threat to the social order. To fully understand this image, we need to delve into the social and political history of late 19th-century France, exploring the rise of anarchist thought, the government's response, and the development of forensic science as a means of social control. Only then can we begin to grasp the full implications of this seemingly simple photograph.