Wanted

This poster points toward the disciplinary use of photography described by art historian John Tagg in his book The Burden of Representation. Tagg observes that photographic technologies led to a "democracy of the image" in the latter half of the nineteenth century, with many more people represented in portraits than ever before. But Tagg explains that such portraits were not always honorific; sometimes portraits were a burden to their subjects, especially when the photographs were used to fix identities in pre-established categories. Such was the case with this poster, which identifies its subject, James Harry Finn, as a criminal.

The “mugshot,” as it came to be known, and identity cards were standardized in nineteenth-century Paris by police photographer Alphonse Bertillon.

This poster was donated to Bruce Peel Special Collections by Jeffrey Moore.