City of shadows: inner city crime and mayhem 1912-1948 [exhibition curatorship]

Research output: Non-traditional research outputCuratorship

Abstract

The extensive collection of police forensic negatives held at the Justice & Police Museum casts a fascinating light on the shadowy underworld of Sydney between the wars. In the mugshots we encounter people of that world - thieves, breakers, receivers, 'magsmen', 'spielers', 'urgers', 'gingerers', false pretenders, 'hotel barbers', shoplifters, dope users, prostitutes, makers of false oaths - and the occasional murderer. And within this medium of crime and accident scene photographs we are able to view, sometimes in extraordinary detail, their physical milieu - the mean kitchens, bedrooms and parlours, the pubs, boarding houses, corner shops and residentials, the sheds, garages, back lanes, streets and byways of a Sydney that is both eerily strange but all too familiar.
Original languageEnglish
Publication statusPublished - 2005

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