Every year twelve million Americans are arrested and photographed by the police.
In many ways, mug shots are our history. Using a dazzling selection of mug shots that are arrestingly raw in their starkness and strangely eloquent in their simplicity, this absorbing, humorous, often bewildering collection sheds a whole new light on our rebellious century.
Political icons Martin Luther King Jr.and Angela Davis, A-list celebrities Hugh Grant and 50 Cent, and from killer Ted Kaczynski to the actor who aided in Abraham Lincoln’s assassination, from prisoners of Auschwitz to a bearded Saddam Hussein, all of them in stark black and white.
Author Giacomo Papi’s brisk and insightful commentary enlightens us with intriguing backstories and little-known facts.
