Notation of Scars, Schematic Drawings 1888 - 1898

Editor: This intriguing photographic print, titled "Notation of Scars, Schematic Drawings" created between 1888 and 1898 by Alphonse Bertillon, it’s got this incredibly clinical feel. The faded sepia tones and the very direct depiction of the two men alongside the… scar charts, I guess, feels almost unsettling. What do you see in this piece? Curator: Unsettling is a good word, I think, because at its core it speaks to ideas of identification, of cataloging the human body. The artist, Alphonse Bertillon, was a pioneer in forensic science, developing methods for identifying criminals. To look at this, knowing the historical context is unsettling. Bertillon tried to reduce people to measurements, scars, repeatable data. He erased nuance, didn’t he? What did being catalogued like that do to a man's sense of self? Editor: That’s… a very chilling perspective, actually. It hadn't occurred to me to think about the individuals. I was mostly taken aback by the composition itself; so straightforward. Was this a common practice back then, to document scars so meticulously? Curator: Absolutely. Consider the broader implications of such precise, systematic recording! You see a cold logic applied to something inherently personal, to the experiences etched on a body. He was a very odd character from the little research I did... Did it feel a bit dehumanising at the time to the individuals that are involved in it, though? Editor: Definitely. Thinking about the image that way, from a dehumanizing aspect rather than clinical, really shifts its meaning for me. I can't look at it in the same way, again, perhaps, in a way of trying to figure out their personal experiences. Curator: Precisely! Art, like life, is about perspectives. And sometimes the most unsettling images are the ones that force us to confront uncomfortable truths about ourselves and our history.