Bordes. Guillaume, Auguste. 40 ans, né à Centrayes (Aveyron). Tailleur. Pas de motif. 29/2/94. 1894

This is an albumen silver print made in France in 1894 by Alphonse Bertillon. Bertillon was a French police officer and biometrics researcher who applied his scientific approach to criminal identification. This photograph is part of Bertillon’s mugshot archive and presents a man named Guillaume Auguste Bordes. The subject’s name and other personal data are inscribed below the image. The unidealized depiction of Bordes, made with the new technology of photography, was meant to assist in identifying and tracking criminals, solidifying photography’s place in service of law enforcement. Bertillon’s “portrait parlé,” or spoken portrait, was part of a larger system of identification. His work reflects anxieties about crime and social order in late 19th-century Paris, during a time of rapid urbanization. By analyzing Bertillon's photographs, as well as police records and sociological studies from the time, we can better understand the social and political context in which it was made. In this way, the history of art becomes inseparable from social and institutional history.