Belloti. Louis. 28 ans, né à Turin. Camelot. Anarchiste. 18/3/94.
Medium
Albumen silver print from glass negative
Dimensions
10.5 x 7 x 0.5 cm (4 1/8 x 2 3/4 x 3/16 in.) each
Classification
Photographs
Department
Photographs
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gilman Collection, Museum Purchase, 2005
Accession Number
2005.100.375.35
Tags
Art Historical Context
This striking 1894 photograph, titled *Belloti. Louis. 28 ans, né à Turin. Camelot. Anarchiste. 18/3/94*, captures Louis Belloti, a 28-year-old street hawker (camelot) from Turin identified as an anarchist. Created by Alphonse Bertillon, the pioneering French forensic photographer and inventor of the Bertillonage system—the first scientific method for criminal identification—this image is a meticulous mugshot from Paris's Prefecture of Police. Bertillon's standardized portraits, taken against a measured scale, combined frontal and profile views to document physical traits alongside personal d...
About the Artist
Alphonse Bertillon · 1853–1914
Alphonse Bertillon (1853–1914) was a pioneering French photographer whose work revolutionized forensic documentation, transforming police identification into a precise visual science. Born in Paris on April 22, 1853, he was the son of medical professor and statistician Louis-Adolphe Bertillon and the younger brother of demographer Jacques Bertillon. Lacking formal higher education after expulsion ...