Mastering the Mug Shot

Abstract

This project uses a case study of an elected official's booking mug shot to examine the way political actors engage in embodied performance to maintain their image in visual media. Mug shots are images that are ostensibly equalizing and represent a long-standing link between law enforcement, journalism and visual culture. Released through the "gates" of law enforcement, they are imbued with a connotation of guilt even though they are created prior to a person's conviction. Using mixed methods, including textual analysis, field observations and interviews, this case study examined the way journalists covered the mugshot booking of former Texas Governor Rick Perry. The event was widely proclaimed a victory rather than a ritual of shame. The study suggests that the governor and his staff engaged in embodied gatekeeping by orchestrating the events leading up to his booking photo which impeded journalists in their effort to independently control their narratives.

Visibility and invisibility in the aged care sector: visual representation in Australian news from 2018–2021

“…Gatekeeping forces start in the field when physical access has to be negotiated in order to access spaces where newsworthy events, people, or scenes reside (Bock, et al, 2018). These continue implicitly when the journalist decides which subjects, angles, and activities to document and which to ignore (Lough & Mortensen, 2022).…”

Who Is Worthy of a Name? Identity, Naming, and Social Difference in News Images’ Captions

“…It is not possible to obtain the name of every person in every situation, especially in dynamic scenes of conflict or when intimate social access is controlled through practices of embodied gatekeeping ) Bock et al, 2016;Lough, 2019(. It should also be noted that many captions that originally included a name when made available by The AP are often stripped in subsequent syndications of the same image to illustrate more general stories on the same news category )easily evidenced on AP's image bank(.…”

A verisimilitude of pessimism: Scottish prisoner mug-shots, 1883–1927

“…Politicians manipulate out the stigmatized mug shot gaze by framing situations to their advantage. Bock et al (2016) highlight the socially constructed valence of the mug shot in contemporary political contexts in the USA. A powerful local politician through deliberate interpersonal strategies circumvented his criminalisation through press photography.…”