If you are ever unfortunate enough to have a police mugshot taken of you, odds are you won’t look good.
It will be like a passport photo you can’t be prepared for. Maybe you’ll look stunned, or teary, or feeling very sorry for yourself.
But if you had your photo taken by police in Sydney in the 1920s, you had a greater opportunity for a good picture.
Read Related Also: Jane Fonda Claims French Director Asked To Sleep With Her To See What Her ‘Orgasms Were Like’
These “special photographs” were mostly taken in the cells at the Central Police Station, Sydney, and are, as Sydney Living Museum curator Peter Doyle explains, of “men and women recently plucked from the street, often still animated by the dramas surrounding their apprehension”.
“The subjects of the Special Photographs seem to have been allowed – perhaps invited – to position and compose themselves for the camera as they liked.”
Click through to see some of the best mugshots from Sydney in the 1920s, and the stories behind them.
