Shady characters - but well dressed
An intriguing exhibition is currently on display at the Museum of Sydney, Circular Quay. Using the police’s own photographic records it focuses on the criminal underworld types menacing Sydney in the 1920’s. These characters are a fascinating by-product of a society struggling to come to terms with the relative affluence of the 1920’s and the trauma and dislocation caused in the aftermath of World War I.
It’s close up and personal stuff looking into the soulful eyes of these men and women caught by the police for various offences. Beyond the menacing gaze or the vacant stare their eyes often contain a sadness and pain. Evoking in the viewer thoughts of empathy and curiosity, what did they do, how, why?
On a purely superficial level they sure were well dressed, collar and tie, or bow ties, jackets and vests and hats. Surely they weren’t all arrested in winter.
Putting these images in context Sydney was only a few years on from welcoming home it’s broken soldiers from the brutality of WWI. Many men struggled to fit back into society unable to cope with emotional and or physical traumas.
It’s an intriguing photographic record of lives in turmoil for reason we may never know. The exhibit is on until 12 August 2018.