Between 1910 and 1930, Australia was a busy place. In particular, big cities like Sydney. Freshly out of their successful first involvement in the far away first World War and eager to put past them the hardships of war, Australians were busy building a society ready to challenge old Europe. Physically far away from the countries they originally came from, Australians were non the less very close to their original roots. Movies were 95% from Hollywood, The Ford T was the car to have and the flight promised to be huge in such a wide country.
But like any growing society, there was also criminals. Robbers, drug dealers, rapist, con artists, they were all represented. Photography was present too and like its cousin cities of Europe and America, the Police dept soon found it very useful to photograph those they had arrested, for quick identification. But unlike the very cold, protocol heavy mug shot that we know today, the Sydney police dept, at the time, seemed to have taken a more artistic approach. Not only mug shots were not always taken in a the police station studio, it also appears that the photographers could not contain their personal feelings.

Some of these mugshots, found at the The Historic Houses Trust by blogger and curator Peter Doyle, were very often taken on the scene just after the criminal was arrested, show them posing in front of bathrooms, in the streets, or in front of local brick wall. What is fascinating here, compared to our current mugshot, is the humanity in these portraits. Instead of depicting physical attributes, they all seem to reveal personality traits. Most show defiant faces, probably very annoyed by the whole process and others expose curiosity, if not sometimes, fake innocence. Most of these subject must have not been familiar with the photographic process as it was at the time not vey common yet and reserve to the wealthy classes. Thus probably the reason for the extreme candor of their poses and attitudes. They didn’t know how the camera would capture them thus could not control their poses. Today, you would hardly see such images as everyone is perfectly tuned to the photographic pose, unless, of course, if they are intoxicated in some way.

There is almost an artistic approach to these mug shots. While, it is unknown if all were taken by the same or different photographer, it does seem that sometimes, he tried to create an ambience around these police photographs. As if there were images of famous politicians or artist.

Nevertheless, it is a fascinating look at our past (australian or not) that seem taken right out of a 1940 film noir hollywood movie.

Paul Melcher