Carraglia. Charles. 39 ans, né à Moceto (It). Homme de lettres. Anar, infraction à la loi du 21/6/73. 13/3/94. 1894

Editor: Here we have a gelatin-silver print from 1894 by Alphonse Bertillon, entitled "Carraglia. Charles. 39 ans, né à Moceto (It). Homme de lettres. Anar, infraction à la loi du 21/6/73. 13/3/94." It’s striking how this formal photographic style, normally reserved for portraits, is applied here; there's a haunting stillness. What strikes you most about this image? Curator: Well, for me, it's the palpable weight of history clinging to the man's gaze, isn't it? I mean, here's Carraglia, not just a name and a face, but a life tangled in the sociopolitical threads of 19th-century Europe. Anarchist, man of letters...it conjures images of smoky cafes, manifestos scribbled on napkins, perhaps even whispered conspiracies. Editor: So you see the photo as a gateway to a larger narrative? Curator: Absolutely! Bertillon's mugshots, see, they’re so much more than criminal records. They become accidental archives of defiance, revealing how the establishment chose to document and, in effect, silence dissident voices. And there's something quietly subversive about framing Carraglia within the established codes of portraiture – like displaying a captured revolutionary as a prize, almost. Does it not strike you? Editor: I hadn't considered it quite that way. I was focusing on the individual; the details like the slight wear in his clothes and wondering about the law he broke. Curator: And isn’t that the beauty of art? We both see it differently and we learn something new by having our own conversation about what we saw. Editor: Definitely. I see it with fresher eyes now. Thanks!