Berard. Adolphe. 52 ans, né le 26/9/41 à Paris Ve. Ébéniste. Anarchiste. 16/3/94. 1894

Curator: What strikes me most about this photograph, "Berard. Adolphe. 52 ans, né le 26/9/41 à Paris Ve. Ébéniste. Anarchiste. 16/3/94," a gelatin silver print dating to 1894, is the directness of its presentation. It’s as if Adolphe Berard is staring right through us. Editor: It has a disquieting energy. Beyond the stern look, the added details of his age, profession and, importantly, his stated anarchist leaning…it all adds to a portrait of someone defined against the current. Curator: Precisely! The photograph is by Alphonse Bertillon, a French criminologist and anthropologist. These weren't created as artworks, but as part of Bertillon's system for identifying repeat offenders. What symbols of social control are wrapped into this photograph? Editor: The almost clinical detail reinforces that intention, certainly. There's the cold calculation in capturing every minute detail of a person reduced to data. Yet, as a portrait, the cumulative details of the written description below, add texture, weight, a sort of romantic gravitas, to this supposed objective criminal recording. Curator: In a way, you might consider this type of photography, even inadvertently, creating its own kind of mythology about people deemed outside societal norms. Think of the romantic figure of the anarchist throughout history. The details added next to Berard's name transforms it from a dry image into a loaded image of historical social realities. Editor: Indeed, though likely not intended, Bertillon unwittingly documented faces that history might otherwise have ignored. What’s striking is how this image operates as both documentation and perhaps even propaganda in an uncanny blend of control and accidental memorialization. Curator: Considering it's displayed within the walls of the Metropolitan Museum, its purpose, its essence, and its story transforms yet again. It is far from a dry mugshot now. Editor: Absolutely. These stark portraits raise pertinent questions about visibility, representation, and who holds the power to inscribe histories onto human faces. I find this simple image, and its charged symbols, haunting.