Photo File: Historic Australian Mug Shots

All these mugshots come from the extensive archives of Australia’s Police and Justice Museum:

The archive was originally created by the New South Wales Police between 1912 and 1964 and contains an estimated 130,000 negatives. It may be the biggest police photography archive of its type in the southern hemisphere, and offers the standard fare of police investigation: mug shots, accident scenes, crashes, murders, fires, forgeries, fingerprints – images stemming from every imaginable variety of law breaking, and spanning six decades of the 20th century. Offering a new exhibition every six months, the space is dedicated to sharing our exploration of this museum’s almost inexhaustible photography archive.

It’s amazing how much more relaxed, artistic and fashionable mug shots were in the early 20th Century as compared to today. For example…

See more mugshots here

Also check out the Museum’s Forensic Photography Blog

Photo File: Katy Grannan

Anonymous, San Francisco, 2010

From Fraenkel Gallery:

Katy Grannan was born in Arlington, Massachusetts in 1969. She received her B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1991 and her M.F.A. from Yale University in 1999. She lives in Berkeley, California, and Brooklyn, New York.

Throughout her work, the influence of portraiture, from classical painting to fashion advertising, can be sensed in the poses and gazes her models adopt. From escapism to self-discovery and catharsis, the motivations for posing – the projection of idealized self into the lens of a stranger – are varied, yet the resulting images consistently reflect the intensity of the relationship between artist and model. Each image resonates with the tension of a first encounter.

In several of Grannan’s series, the photographs her models in their own surroundings or her own home, paying meticulous attention to the elements of each domestic setting: wood paneling, patterned wallpaper, and other mundane but often telling details. The subjects choose to remain clothed or model nude, or to pause somewhere in between, working with Grannan to arrive at the pose. In Grannan’s series Sugar Camp Road and Mystic Lake, she moves the exercise outdoors, using municipal parks and their surrounding areas as the backdrop. Even though parklands and roadsides that serve as her set bring the private encounters of her earlier series into the public landscape, she maintains a delicate – yet increasingly charged – sense of intimacy.

Katy Grannan’s BOULEVARD series (top three images) is on display at the Fraenkel Gallery (49 Geary Street, San Francisco) January 6, 2011 – February 19, 2011.

Gail and Dale, Pacifica, 2006

Dale, Pacifica, 2006

Edward (with Prayer Beads), Baker Beach, 2006

Joline, Broad Top PA, 2002

Deanna, Allentown PA, 2001

Photo File: “Mamika” – A Grandmother’s Superhero Therapy

According to Eugene of My Modern Met:

A few years ago, French photographer Sacha Goldberger found his 91-year-old Hungarian grandmother Frederika feeling lonely and depressed. To cheer her up, he suggested that they shoot a series of outrageous photographs in unusual costumes, poses, and locations. Grandma reluctantly agreed, but once they got rolling, she couldn’t stop smiling.

Frederika was born in Budapest 20 years before World War II. During the war, at the peril of her own life, she courageously saved the lives of ten people. When asked how, Goldberger told us “she hid the Jewish people she knew, moving them around to different places everyday.” As a survivor of Nazism and Communism, she then immigrated away from Hungary to France, forced by the Communist regime to leave her homeland illegally or face death.

Aside from great strength, Frederika has an incredible sense of humor, one that defies time and misfortune. She is funny and cynical, always mocking the people that she loves.

With the unexpected success of this series, titled “Mamika,” Goldberger created a MySpace page for his grandmother. She now has over 2,200 friends and receives messages like: “You’re the grandmother that I have dreamed of, would you adopt me?” and ” You made my day, I hope to be like you at your age.”

Initially, she did not understand why all these people wrote to congratulate her. Then, little by little, she realized that her story conveyed a message of hope and joy. In all those pictures, she posed with the utmost enthusiasm. Now, after the set, Goldberger shares that his grandmother has never shown even a trace of depression. Perhaps it’s because her story serves some sort of purpose. That through the warm words of newfound friends, she’s reminded of just how lucky she is to be alive….

See more photos from the “Mamika” series here

Photo File: Lu Guang

On October 14, 2009, Lu Guang of the People’s Republic of China won the $30,000 W. Eugene Smith Grant in Humanistic Photography for his documentary project Pollution in China. (via China Hush)

An elder shepherd by the Yellow River cannot stand the smell. April 23, 2006

In Guiyu, Guangdong province, the rivers and reservoirs have been contaminated, the villager is doing her washing in this seriously polluted pond. November 25, 2005

Mr. Lu was born in 1961 in Zhejiang Province and was taking pictures before his 20th birthday, when he worked in a factory. He studied at the fine arts academy at Tsinghua University in Beijing from 1993 to 1995 and has concentrated on social and economic issues in his work since then. In 2003, his pictures of peasants in Henan Province who had been infected with HIV after selling their blood won the first prize for a story about contemporary issues from World Press Photo. (via NY Times)

See more of Guang’s work here

In Ma’anshan, Anhui province, along the Yangtze River there are many small-scaled iron factories and plastic processing plants, which discharge large amounts of sewage  into the Yangtze River. June 18, 2009

Hebei Province Shexian Tianjin iron and steel plant produces a massive amount of pollution. Company scale continues to grow, seriously affecting the lives of local residents. March 18, 2008

Photo File: “Bound for Glory”, America in Color from 1939-1943

Jack Whinery, homesteader, and his family. Pie Town, New Mexico, October 1940. Reproduction from color slide. Photo by Russell Lee. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress

According to the Denver Post (published July 26, 2010):

“These images, by photographers of the Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information, are some of the only color photographs taken of the effects of the Depression on America’s rural and small town populations. The photographs are the property of the Library of Congress and were included in a 2006 exhibit Bound for Glory: America in Color.”

See more images from Bound For Glory here

Woman is working on a “Vengeance” dive bomber Tennessee, February 1943. Reproduction from color slide. Photo by Alfred T. Palmer. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress

Backstage at the “girlie” show at the state fair. Rutland, Vermont, September 1941. Reproduction from color slide. Photo by Jack Delano. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress

Worker at carbon black plant. Sunray, Texas, 1942. Reproduction from color slide. Photo by John Vachon. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress