Ridou. Paul, François. 27 (ou 28) ans. Ébéniste. Anarchiste. 8/3/94. 1894

This is a mugshot photograph, made by Alphonse Bertillon, it shows Ridou Paul, a 27 year old anarchist cabinet maker on March 8th, 1894. The composition is stark: a frontal view of Ridou, framed tightly, emphasizing his face and upper body. The monochrome palette flattens the image, reducing depth, and highlighting the contrast between light and shadow on his face. The rigid format, devoid of artistic flourishes, underscores its purpose as an objective record. Bertillon’s photographic method was part of a larger project of social ordering, attempting to classify and control individuals through a system of measurement and visual documentation. The mugshot thus embodies a semiotic paradox: it seeks to fix identity, to reduce an individual to a set of quantifiable traits, while simultaneously revealing the instability of such categorization. The gaze of the subject and the very act of documentation imply the subject's resistance to being fully defined. Ultimately, this mugshot is more than just a record, it is a study into the power of the photographic medium to define, categorize and control.