Ah! Intrigue

The most intriguing photography is not to be found on gallery walls. You could convincingly argue that gallery walls are no place for documentary photography anyway. And I’ve argued that without context and captions, documentary photography is meaningless. Well I don’t know about art or meaning, but my attention was recently drawn towards some intriguing photographs by a FaceBook friend (and I’m always up for a bit of intrigue). The Justice and Police Museum in Sydney, Australia, houses an archive of thousands of vernacular photographs that were taken to document criminals and their activities. But looking at them out of the context they were produced in, they seem absolutely bizarre. I have no idea why this man came into contact with the Australian Police – is there a law against chiffon? Was he smuggling emus? I don’t know, but I think you should have a look here.