Like many crime fiction aficionados I know, I am a lover of old mug shots, and of tabloid photos of the those caught in the act of reckless living, tumult, sorrow and rage. Some are cracking, rowdy–promising behind-the-scenes bad behavior of the lighter, livelier kind. Some are hopelessly sad. Many just let you fill everything in yourself:
(this from a great exhibit a few years ago here).
Mostly, I prefer these images to be at least a few decades old, or even older. But there have been a few lately (one a mug shot, one apparently a cell phone shot of bad behavior) that really struck me. The first one is of a young woman who was, recently, the star of an E! reality show. A probation violator, she was recently caught with a fake driver’s license and black tar heroin. Her expression, the angle, everything about it is striking, strange, sad:
(Note also the t-shirt; so many mug or crime scene photos have organic irony).
And the other one (follow this link) is Lindsay Lohan. With its grainy, nearly sepia quality, it could almost be a century old, or older. There’s something utterly contemporary (cell phone image, party dress) and yet ancient. With Ms. Lohan looking for all the world like a doomed vampiress.
The Abbott Gran Medicine Show 