Rossi. Guillaume. 20 ans, né le 8/3/71 à Biel (Italie). Serrurier. Vagabondage. 15/1/95.

Art Historical Context

This poignant albumen silver print, created by Alphonse Bert in 1895, the stern visage of Guillaume Rossi, a20-year-old locksmith born in Biel, Italy, arrested in Paris for vagrancy January 15. Titled with meticulous detail—*Rossi. Guillaume. 20 ans, né le 8/3/71 à Biel (Italie). Serr. Vagabondage. 15/1/95*—it exemplifies Bertillon's revolutionary anthropometric system, or *Bertillonage*, the first scientific method for criminal identification before fingerprints dominated. As a pioneer in forensic photography, Bertillon transformed portraiture into a tool of justice. Working as a French police expert, he standardized mugshots with full-face and profile views, precise measurements, and personal data inscribed on small cards like this 10.5 x 7 cm glass-negative print. Housed in The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Gilman Collection, it reflects late 19th-century anxieties over urban vagrancy and immigration amid France's Belle Époque. The albumen process lent these images remarkable clarity and tonal depth, making them enduring records of human stories behind statistics. Today, they invite reflection on photography's dual role as art and evidence, humanizing the era's marginalized figures.

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 ...