Millard. Victor. 53 ans, né le 5/6/40 à Moyon (Oise). Cordonnier. 16/3/94. 1894

Editor: Here we have an albumen print, a photograph by Alphonse Bertillon entitled “Millard. Victor. 53 ans, né le 5/6/40 à Moyon (Oise). Cordonnier. 16/3/94.” dated 1894. The materiality strikes me; it looks almost like it's on a card. What can you tell me about it? Curator: Well, considering Bertillon's background in law enforcement, it’s crucial to consider the context of photographic practices and evolving labor structures. These images, primarily tools for identification and control, represent a shift in how individuals were categorized. Look closely at the stark lighting, the man's gaze, and consider the process of production, its purpose: Millard isn’t consenting to being photographed here; his identity is being manufactured. How do you think his work as a shoemaker might have affected how he was viewed? Editor: So you're suggesting that we view this less as a portrait, and more as a document that reveals something about labor and the classification of people? Curator: Precisely! Consider what it meant to be a shoemaker in that era and the material conditions of his labor. The photograph reduces him to a set of identifiable traits for bureaucratic consumption. Also, it shows us the way photographic practices served and transformed modern capitalist modes of social and industrial organization. Can we separate the aesthetic qualities of the image from the methods that produce it? Editor: That makes me reconsider how the photograph functions. Instead of simply seeing a portrait of a man, I see how it fits into a system that processes individuals as data. Curator: Exactly! The consumption of images like this is tied directly to social systems that classify and control. So what appears to be an image is also information. Editor: Thank you! I never would have looked at it this way by myself!