So, I want to share some old photos you may have seen before. Hell, I’ve seen them before online in passing, probably one night just aimlessly navigating the web. But the thing is I never really stopped to digest them - until now - which is unfortunate because they are just superb.

The tonality is great, the focus is spot on, the composition of each photo is just amazing, but above all else, there’s this almost beautiful sadness to them.  Perhaps that’s not the right descriptor, but there’s something about these photos that sets them apart.

While I could surmise they were old booking photos from a jail somewhere I didn’t know much else. They are unlike any mug shots I’ve seen before; the individuals seem almost at ease, allowed to assume an almost natural pose for the camera as they would for any photo despite their bleak surroundings and current predicament of being in jail.

I managed to track down a bit of background on them in an article from 2005. It turns out they date from between 1912 and 1930. They’re from a collection of glass plate negatives shot by New South Wales police photographers that was just in storage up until 1989 when they were “found” and then started to be documented.

I love it when stuff like this is rediscovered - like those Vivian Maier photos a while back - making it’s way back into the world where it can viewed and shared and perhaps then we can even gain a little insight to the past.

I stumbled once again upon these photos on a Livejournal post, which I’d recommend checking out for more photos a bit larger. And lastly, these photos are archived in the Historic Houses Trust website where the photos have descriptions of who they are and what they were in jail for, plus they’re available in larger resolutions there too.