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Mug shot of Albert Sing, 31 March 1922. Location unknown.
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Title:
Mug shot of Albert Sing, 31 March 1922. Location unknown.
Creator:
New South Wales. Police Dept.
Date:
March 1922
Format:
Glass plate negative:
Inscription:
Emulsion side:
Subject:
mug shots
police detainees and suspects
criminals
bentwood chairs
Description:
Special Photograph no. 1092. On 1 May 1922, a month after this photograph was taken, Albert Sing was sentenced to 18 months hard labour on three counts of receiving stolen goods, including fountain pens, cutlery and clothing.
This picture is one of a series of around 2500 "special photographs" taken by New South Wales Police Department photographers between 1910 and 1930. These "special photographs" were mostly taken in the cells at the Central Police Station, Sydney and are, as curator Peter Doyle explains, of "men and women recently plucked from the street, often still animated by the dramas surrounding their apprehension". Doyle suggests that, compared with the subjects of prison mug shots, "the subjects of the Special Photographs seem to have been allowed - perhaps invited - to position and compose themselves for the camera as they liked. Their photographic identity thus seems constructed out of a potent alchemy of inborn disposition, personal history, learned habits and idiosyncrasies, chosen personal style (haircut, clothing, accessories) and physical characteristics."
Published in:
Peter Doyle with Caleb Williams City of shadows: Sydney police photographs 1912-1948 Historic Houses Trust, 2005, pp.205, 237.
Exhibited in:
City of Shadows at the Justice & Police Museum, Sydney, November 2005-January 2007.
Source:
Justice & Police Museum ; 005
Rights:
You may save or print this image for research and study. If you wish to use it for any other purposes, you must contact Museums of History NSW to request permission.
Material Type:
Picture
Record number:
31165