Retté. Adolphe. 30 ans, né à Paris IXe. Homme de lettre. Cris séditieux. 21/1/94. 1894

This is a mugshot of Adolphe Retté, a 30-year-old writer arrested in Paris in 1894 for seditious cries, made by Alphonse Bertillon using photography and paper. Bertillon developed a system of anthropometric identification that became standard police practice. The portrait itself is less about individual likeness and more about Retté’s supposed deviance. This photo participates in a longer tradition in Western culture of physiognomy or the ‘science’ of judging character from facial features. In late 19th-century France, anxiety about social order and political dissent led to new forms of surveillance and control. Bertillon's mugshots were not just tools for identifying criminals, but also reflected a broader effort by the state to categorize and manage its population. Historians can look at police records, newspaper accounts, and political pamphlets to understand the climate of the time, revealing much about the politics of imagery and the social conditions that shape artistic production.