Mug Shots from the Sydney Living Museum of Criminal Justice Police mug shots are surely amongst one of the most unusual forms of portraiture. Usually shot at police stations after apprehending a criminal or a crime suspect, today, are made with professional photography equipment and according to particular guidelines. They are not, however, a new forensic technique. Mug shots have been used in prisons all over the world since the very beginning of the invention of photography. During our April photography sale, one of the most intriguing objects in our offer are two mug shots, taken during the 1920s at the central police station in Sydney (Australia). The photographs in our offer were originally shown in Warsaw at the Yours Gallery, during the “City of Shadows” exhibition in 2008. It was organized with the help of the Sydney Museum of Criminal Justice. The mug shots from Sydney, allow their viewers a close encounter with individuals living over a one hundred years ago. Except their clothing, posture or interesting physical traits, we can also observe the direct eye contact they made with the photographer. They, in fact, do not resemble today’s mug shots at all. Their unique nature stems from the completely different and historical forms of documentation. To quote Roland Barthes, the French writer and philosopher: ‘The photograph is literally an emanation of the referent. From a real body, which was there, proceed radiations which ultimately touch me, who am here; the duration of the transmission is insignificant; the photograph of the missing being, as Sontag says, will touch me like the delayed rays of a star.’ (R. Barthes, Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography), In a rather incredible way, through the process of photographic record, despite the time and distance, as contemporary viewers we can, just like Barthes muses, connect with the crime suspects of the year 1928.