The National Archives of Australia (NAA) has become home for a touring exhibition of photographs taken by the NSW Police in the 1920s.
The exhibition is billed as the dark side of the Roaring Twenties and NAA invites people to “descend into the seedy underworld where the only rules were never squeal to the police and always, always shoot first”.
NAA said criminals thrived during the turbulent 1920s when rapid societal change led to the opening up of new illicit markets for entrepreneurial felons.
“Sydney’s police photographers captured the zeitgeist of the era in these unexpectedly candid mug shots of cocaine sellers and addicts, sly-grog purveyors and small-time criminals,” it said.
“Bosses, bruisers, plotters and petty criminals are captured by the camera as they stare down the lens and into history.
“The stories of the suspects, who range from stone-cold gangsters to wayward youth, give a flavour of the strangely hierarchical criminal world.”
NAA said the mugshots documented more than just crime, they detailed the rise and fall of trends such as the flapper and illustrated the post-war movement of people between Sydney and other cities such as New York and London.
The Archives said over 100 images of suspects taken by NSW Police between 1920 and 1930 had been reproduced from original glass negatives for the exhibition, curated by Sydney Living Museums, and were on display until 24 October at NAA on Kings Avenue, Canberra.
“Known to police as ‘Special’ photographs, they are unexpectedly raw and intriguing portraits of people in custody unlike any found elsewhere in the world,” it said.
Further information on the Underworld: Mugshots from the Roaring Twenties exhibition can be accessed at this PS News link.
