| The idea for this exhibition originated from the patient study of a group of 11 small contact prints, which stubbornly resisted analysis. These tiny silver gelatin prints were discovered 15 years ago at a famous New York flea market …
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Save the Date “Forensic Aesthetics” will last two month until the auction on September 14 2024, 3 p.m. The catalog is available online on the Drouot.com, consigned.it and 150cent.com The idea for this exhibition originated from the patient study of a group of 11 small contact prints, which stubbornly resisted analysis. These tiny silver gelatin prints were discovered 15 years ago at a famous New York flea market by a well-known dealer, Lennicher, known as Lenny. Even back then, Lenny insisted they were significant and created by a very famous photographer, though he had forgotten the name. Despite their small size, he demanded a considerable sum for them. The images depict an abandoned warehouse, focusing on details that seem like clues in a photographic investigation: keys hanging on a wooden board, wear marks on the floor, abandoned shoes, and an old radiator. For years, we searched to see if these corresponded to a famous criminal case, but they did not, not at all.
Thus, one of the world’s most famous photo magazines published these photographs with the aesthetic of forensic photographers. This implies that over roughly a century, from 1860 to 1960, the development of scientific police photography for solving mysteries, conducting investigations, and identifying criminals also created a distinct aesthetic category within the history of photography. Bertillonage The repression of the 1871 Paris Commune marked a turning point in the use of photography by the police. The Prefecture of Police called on photographer Appert to take portraits of arrested Communards in the Versailles prisons. In the following years, although not systematically, the practice developed at the Prefecture de Police, in the urban police forces of a number of major cities, in the court clerks’ offices, and in some prisons and military jails. Portraits began to be included individual convict files, procedural files and the first index cards. Now, how did he become an assassin? Here’s the story he told us: “I wasn’t happy, my head was working. When I got out of lunch at two o’clock, I went for a walk on the boulevard, and then, all of a sudden, my head was spinning. I had a vision. My eyelids were fluttering, it was buzzing in my ears like a gnat. I was very strong on my feet, but I stopped because I couldn’t see clearly. I couldn’t walk anymore. I could see the trees, the houses, the whole world in red. My throat had suddenly gone dry. I was speechless for at least eing minutes. I had no idea I was going to fall, I just stood there until it passed. It had taken hold of me all of a sudden like a dizziness takes hold of you. I was walking around, but I didn’t feel the same as usual. It was like a silent rage. It was nearly three o’clock. While thinking of nothing, I had the idea of killing someone. I fought for a long time, thinking about my parents and everyone else. Then I went back to my room, sat down, had a smoke and read a bit to see if the idea would pass. I was very restless and wandered up and down the room, but then I suddenly started cursing: “Holy God, I’ve got to kill someone! So I got my knife ready, opened it wide, put it in my dresser drawer and went down to the street. There were only kids there. I walked around for half an hour, waiting for someone bigger. I didn’t hear a voice, but inside me it was like a thirst for blood.I finally approached the first little boy and asked him to follow me to my room to run an errand for me and take some laundry to the laundress. He seemed to have made up his mind, but ran off. I approached two others: one said he couldn’t, because his mother was waiting for him; the other, on the offer of my steel chain, agreed to follow me. I let him in, double-locked the door, took off my overcoat, tied his hands behind his back and rolled up a towel to close his mouth. I saw that it was too big, that it wouldn’t hold, so I took my scarf and gagged him. He didn’t say anything; he looked astonished. I took him in my arms and laid him on the bed. I was upset, I had a fever, I was shaking, I was chattering my teeth like when you have a cold. I didn’t care at all to see him on the bed; he didn’t struggle, move or try to escape. I undid his jacket and vest, undid his pants and lifted up his shirt, put my left hand over his eyes, took my knife, which was in the chest of drawers, all open; I gave him two blows in the belly, just on the big gut that came out, and then I cut his throat across. Based on the work of Cesare Lombroso, Alexandre Lacassagne theorized that “tattooing was the inaction resulting from imprisonment, coupled with the impossibility of expressing particularly important ideas and feelings in any other way”. Lacassagne collected more than 2,000 tattoos on the skin of 550 French convicts. His study made it possible to analyze the bodies of both prisoners and soldiers. The professor distinguished several categories of tattoos: patriotic and religious emblems (91), professional inscriptions (98), inscriptions (111), military emblems (149), metaphorical emblems (260), amorous and erotic (280), fanciful and historical (344). Antoine Magnani, was sentenced to prison for the murder of André Berger, at Navara (com. de Sartène, Corsica), on November 2, 1894. His tattoo depicts the Battle of Bazeilles on September 1, 1870, in particular the heroic scene of the division’s marsouins sacrificing themselves to save the French army, a scene immortalized by painter Alphonse de Neuville in his painting “Les dernières cartouches”.
Jacques Mesrine, public enemy no. 1, was shot dead by police during an operation at Porte de Clignancourt, after a year and a half on the run. Forensic Aesthetics From the morgues of Detroit and Puebla to those of New York and Mexico City, the American and Mexican schools of photography attempted to transcend the beauty and horror of violent death through photography and staging. Joel David Kaplan, was a New York photographer then businessman and nephew of Molasses Tycoon Jacob M. Kaplan, whose J.M. Kaplan Fund was named in a 1964 congressional investigation as a conduit for CIA money for Latin America. Joel David Kaplan was convicted in 1962 for the Mexico City murder of his New York business partner, Louis Vidal Jr. Kaplan claimed at the trial that Vidal, who had been involved in narcotics and gunrunning, had constructed an elaborate plot to disappear. The murder victim, Kaplan maintained, was not even Vidal, and indeed, serious doubts were raised about the body’s identity. Kaplan escaped from his Mexican Jail in August 1971, accompanied by Carlos Antonio Contreras Castro, a Venezuelan counterfeiter. Most of the 136 guards at Mexico City’s Santa Maria Acatitla prison were watching a movie with the prisoners when a Bell helicopter, similar in color to the Mexican attorney general’s, suddenly clattered into the prison yard. Some of the guards on duty presented arms, supposing that the helicopter had brought an unexpected official visitor. The final escape plans – Kaplan had prepared many plans which all failed during the years – had apparently been completed the day before when an American man visited Cell No. 10 and looked over the prison yard. He was accompanied by both men’s wives. (Kaplan had married a Mexican woman—the only way he could have visitors, he said—without bothering to divorce New York Model Bonnie Sharie.) After the escape, Kaplan and Castro switched to a small Cessna at a nearby airfield and were flown to La Pesca airport near the Texas border, where two more planes awaited them. One flew Castro to Guatemala; the other flew Kaplan to Texas and then on to California. Kaplan used his own name when he passed U.S. customs at Brownsville. Both the helicopter, which was later found abandoned, and the Cessna had been bought in the U.S., at an estimated cost of $100,000. At week’s end neither man had been caught. Kaplan’s Mexican attorney declared that his client was a CIA agent and that the rescue had been engineered by the agency. The jail break was so notorious it was even featured in the Charles Bronson film Breakout and became the subject of examinations of conspiracy theories. Kaplan died in Miami in 1988. Delivery and shipping ASTA DI SENIGALLIA is based in Senigallia, Italy, its headquarters and showroom. Consignments, inquiries, assistance and shipping are generated from the ATELIER41 center, located at Via Fratelli Bandiera 41, 60019 Senigallia (AN). The ATELIER41’s team is at your disposal to welcome you, answer your questions, and provide additional images. Lots can be picked up in Senigallia, Châtillon-sur-Saône, Paris, or shipped by BRT, UPS or FedEx to third-party destinations. Offline Auction process If you do not have internet access, do not wish to register with Drouot, or simply prefer to remain anonymous, ATELIER41 offers an Offline Auction process. To proceed, you may contact the ATELIER41’s team, by e-mail to consigned, or in person at ATELIER41, Via Fratelli Bandiera 41, 60019 Senigallia (AN), Italy. La Fotografia antica è la più bella delle collezioni … Senigallia, città della fotografia, ospita un nuovo spazio dedicato alla collezione di fotografie. Atelier 41, si trova 41 via fratelli Bandiera. In preparazione la IV Biennale di Senigallia, estate 2025, conferenza, fiera 13-15 Giugno 2023. Senigallia diventerà la Città delle collezioni.
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