Boulnois. Paul, Cyprien. 20 ans, né à Paris Ille. Employé de commerce. Anarchiste. 6/3/94. 1894

Editor: This is a gelatin silver print from 1894 by Alphonse Bertillon, entitled "Boulnois. Paul, Cyprien. 20 ans, né à Paris Ille. Employé de commerce. Anarchiste. 6/3/94." It’s strikingly direct, almost confrontational. What significance do you see in its imagery? Curator: The unflinching gaze, the stark presentation… this image isn't just a record. It’s an artifact pregnant with symbolic weight. Notice how the meticulous inscription—name, age, occupation, affiliation—attempts to fix Boulnois within a rigid societal framework. It’s a taxonomic act, a pinning down. But what resists? Editor: What do you mean by resists? Curator: Look at his eyes. They are so direct. What does this say about how power relationships get recorded visually, how that impacts our contemporary culture of surveillance? Bertillon’s mugshots sought to codify criminal identity, but these details could also ignite revolutionary sympathy or reflect defiance against prevailing ideologies. He's staring us down, even now. Editor: I hadn't considered that push and pull before. The inscription tries to define him, but the photo complicates that narrative. Curator: Precisely. Even the seemingly neutral act of documentation can be imbued with hidden meaning and power dynamics. The cultural memory it preserves reflects a continuous tension between control and resistance. How do we reckon with the way identity gets reduced and represented? Editor: This makes me think about how our own social media profiles both define us and can be subverted. Thank you; this was very insightful. Curator: A pleasure. Looking critically at images like this reminds us of the enduring power and complexity of visual representation.