Roussel. Henri-Louis. 28 ans, né à Paris le 2/10/65. Ardoiseur. Anarchiste. 2/7/94. 1894

Editor: Here we have a gelatin silver print from 1894, titled "Roussel. Henri-Louis. 28 ans, né à Paris le 2/10/65. Ardoiseur. Anarchiste. 2/7/94," by Alphonse Bertillon. The photograph has an official, almost clinical feel. What can you tell me about this work? Curator: Look at the starkness of the gelatin silver print. Bertillon, through his photographic methods, essentially industrialized portraiture for the state. He used readily available, reproducible materials like gelatin and silver to create a system, a technology of control. Note the subject's occupation, “ardoiseur”—a slate worker— and the label, "Anarchist". Editor: So the very medium, photography, becomes a tool for documenting and, perhaps, oppressing? Curator: Precisely. How are labor, materiality and consumption interlinked here? Bertillon’s system depended on mass-produced materials, fueled by industrial labor to catalogue and ultimately, control a segment of the working class deemed "anarchist." Editor: It’s unsettling to consider the photo not just as an image, but as a product of specific industrial and political forces. Curator: Exactly. Consider this alongside artistic photography of the time. Where were portraiture’s artistic concerns regarding materiality then, versus the utilitarian application of this "Anthropometric Portrait” here? Think of the consumption and power relations inherent in each image's production. Editor: So, it prompts us to think critically about not only what is depicted but how and why it was made. Curator: Indeed. Looking at the work with those points allows us to gain new awareness of how material conditions inform even the most seemingly straightforward images.