Crespin. Joseph. 40 ans, né à Roquesteron (Alpes-Maritimes). Employé de banque. 25/3/93.
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
2005.100.375.127
Tags
Art Historical Context
In 1893, French criminologist and photographer Alphonse Bertillon this precise portrait of Joseph Crespin a 40-year-old employee from Roquester in the Alpes-Maritimes region of France. Titled with meticulous detail—"Crespin. Joseph. 40 ans, né à Roquesteron (Alpes-Maritimes). Employ de banque. 25/3/93."—the image is a hallmark of Bertillon's revolutionary anthropometric system, known as *bertillonage*. Developed in the 1880s while working for the Paris Prefecture of Police, this method combined physical measurements, standardized photographs (front and profile views), and descriptive notes to ...
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 ...