Hat Photos, 1890 - 1935

[Lando]

I found most of these on the State Library of New South Wales Flickr Collection. There are some real gems in here though.

 

[Garrett]

that last one is a mirror image - ribbon bow/knot on the wrong side

 

[scottyrocks]

Yeah, that last one is a great image. I fixed it up a little:

 

[Baron Kurtz]

For more Australian hat photos, I would recommend the books City of Shadows and Crooks Like Us, two books drawn from the NSW Police criminal photograph archives. Excellent stuff; the mug shots were part of an unofficial drive by the police in the teens-40s apparently to identify and catalogue notorious and exemplar criminals. The photos were issued to other police forces, IIRC in the form of a monthly "Digest".

bk

 

[zetwal]

Wonderful photos. Thanks for sharing them with us here ...

 

[gtdean48]

...

If the guy with the pipe would be sporting a thinner ribbon, he'd be my fashion icon. That dude is styling & profiling!! :eusa_clap :eusa_clap

 

[Blackthorn]

If the guy with the pipe would be sporting a thinner ribbon, he'd be my fashion icon. That dude is styling & profiling!! :eusa_clap :eusa_clap

Great picture!

 

[Lando]

bk

That is a pretty bad ass portrait I must say. When you look at mugshots these days they usually catch people at their worst. But these old mugshots really seem to capture criminals at their best a lot of time. I suppose the process of photography back then must have given them more of a chance to arrange themselves. That or everyone just looks that smooth, lol.

 

[Baron Kurtz]

Believe me, they pick the good ones for the covers. There are a wide variety of mug shots in these books. Many of the men, like the chap above, wear the self confident face of the hardened criminal, but a significant number are clearly "small time" mugs caught up in something out of their league and don't look nearly so swaggering/good. Many who can't bear to look into the camera, eyes welling with tears … amazing studies of humanity.

bk