“It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia”: Stunning Mid-Century Mugshots From The City Of Brotherly Love – Design You Trust — Design Daily Since 2007

“It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia”: Stunning Mid-Century Mugshots From The City Of Brotherly Love

Sometimes mugshots look like portraits. In this gallery of faces from 1950 and 1960s Philadelphia, photo collector Mark Michaelson picks mugshots that make us stop, look and keep looking.

“In Boston they ask, how much does he know? In New York, how much is he worth? In Philadelphia, who were his parents?” – Mark Twain

Punks, sneaks, mooks and miscreants. Hookers, stooges, grifters and goons. Men and women, elderly and adolescent, rich and poor, but mostly poor. These are the Least Wanted. Their portraits make up a small part of Mark Michaelson’s collection of over 10,000 American mugshots from the 1870s to the 1960s.

Created as utilitarian instruments, and meant to be destroyed when obsolete, they survive as remnants of a bygone era of hard-copy originals, extraordinary visual windows on the past, and riveting physical artifacts, often accompanied by municipal ephemera. They are glued to cards and manuscripts, typed on and rubber stamped. Each suspect has been measured and fingerprinted, documented and classified.

Bored, sheepish, proud, coy, tough, defiant, bounced, bloodied, bruised, broken and innocent faces–innocent until proven guilty–stare back at the camera with unmistakable individuality. This is central casting for the Late Late Show of unvarnished reality, and the lineup is full of small-timers, those who have fallen through the cracks.

Each subject, each image, is a person, a portrait, a trace, a crime, a clue, a moment, an expression, a frame, a mustache, a mother, a father, a son or a daughter. Each image is evidence, documentation. A record of people and of stories dismissed by history and rescued here. A century of American souls, filed and forgotten, until now.

More info: Amazon (h/t: flashbak)















































If you want more awesome content, subscribe to Design You Trust Facebook page.

More Inspiring Stories

Land Rover Celebrates 70 Years With Stunning Poster Collection

Striking Black And White Photographs Of Venice Beach Eccentrics In 1984

Stunning Painting-Like Photography Shows Off The Beauty Of Rainy Season In Japan

Stunning Photos Of Cappadocia, Turkey That Will Take Your Breath Away

Impressive Portraits of Grace Jones in the 1970s and 1980s

Photographer Captures Beautiful Polish Folklore Costumes In A Painting-Like Style

Going Down The London Underground In The Later 1980s

"Game of Thrones": Two Girls Recreate Their Favourite TV And Film Scenes

Pictures Of Russian Meteorologist That Spent 30 Years In The Loneliest Place On Earth

Thai Woman Creates Hilarious Instagram Vs. Reality Collages

Beautiful Slavic Folklore With Julia Galimova

Shooting Under the Antarctic Ice

Amazing Street-Winning Photos from the Fine Art Photography Awards 2024

This Year's Incredible British Ecological Society Photography Competition Winners

Winners Of The 2020 International Landscape Photographer Of The Year Competition Have Been Announced And They’re Mesmerizing

Rare Hand-Colored Photographs of Japan on The Brink of Modernity in 1870s

Ozzy Ironing a Baby, 1983

Mysterious Jupiter Up Close Looks Like A Van Gogh Painting

Beautiful Cosplay Girls

Spectacular Winning Photos from the 2025 World Nature Photography Awards

Beautiful Photo Portraits Of Australian Women Painted In Vibrant Colors

Incredible Travel And Adventure Photography Of Sam Morrison

A Photographer Compares Portraits of Cats and Their Owners, and the Results Are Too Similar to Be Ignored

Buttons and Kitty - Two Baby-Friends

Absolutely Superb Minimalist Black and White Photos Captured Winter Scenes in Japan in the 1950s and 1960s

A World Where Dreams Come True: Stunning Photo Works of Mücahit

Photographer Chrissy Sparks Transforms Ordinary Women Into Glamorous Pin-Ups

Before Smartphones And Computers Kids Had Real Fun

The Couple that Laughs Together

Unromantic Gypsies: Captivating Black And White Photos Show The Lives Of The Corke’s Meadow Travellers Who Set Up Home In 1950s Kent