Maince. Émile. 19 ans, né à Levallois-Perret (Seine). Réparateur d'objets d'arts. Anarchiste. 6/1/94. 1894

This is an albumen print, a photographic process that was popular in the 19th century, made by Alphonse Bertillon. Bertillon was a French police officer and biometrics researcher. The image's sepia tones and soft focus are due to the specific chemistry involved in the albumen process, where paper is coated with egg white and silver nitrate, then exposed to light through a negative. The amount of work that went into it becomes more poignant when we understand that this particular image is a mugshot. The subject, Émile Maince, was a 19-year-old art restorer and, notably, an anarchist. In a way, Bertillon was trying to standardize the human form through photography, reducing Maince to a set of measurable data points, an idea that would be taken up with a vengeance in the 20th century. Consider how the careful craft of photography was here put to the service of social control. It is a reminder that materials and processes are never neutral; they always carry a social and political charge.