Ferter. Ernest, Charles. 31 ans, né le 23/10/62 à Melun (Seine & Marne). Fumiste. Anarchiste. 2/7/94. 1894

This mugshot by Alphonse Bertillon captures Ernest Ferter in 1894, fixing his identity for the burgeoning science of criminal identification. What strikes me is the cigarette dangling from his lips, a symbol of the era’s burgeoning modernity and defiance. The cigarette, a slender tube of tobacco, carries echoes of rebellion. We see its antecedent in the pipes of earlier centuries, emblems of contemplation and leisure. Yet, the cigarette is quicker, more transient, a fleeting pleasure. Think of Manet’s flâneurs, cigarette in hand, observers of a rapidly changing Paris. It evolved from a sign of leisure to an emblem of counterculture and rebellion. Consider James Dean, the archetypal rebel, forever immortalized with a cigarette. Here, the cigarette becomes a statement, a symbol that defies the authority attempting to confine him. It’s a small act of resistance, a reminder of individual agency in a system designed to erase it. Thus, the cigarette loops through time, continually re-emerging in different guises.