Photos

Photography was still in its infancy during the 1871 Paris Commune, and many people obtained visual information about current events through the 19th century illustrated magazines, periodicals and pamphlets that were read, often together in public spaces.

The pétroleuse trials and Communard trials held by the military tribunal following the Paris Commune’s Bloody Week were also, uniquely, the first time that photography was used for trial purposes, and comprise the world’s first ‘mug shots’.

Court photographer Ernest Eugene Appert took portraits of the Communards at Versailles, which he supplied to the military tribunal, offered as tokens for the families of the prisoners, and commercially exploited in his ‘Crimes of the Commune’ photo book.

In this book, Appert found fame for his ‘Crimes of the Commune’ photo montages, where he used the headshots he had taken of Communards and Pétroleuses to recreate scenes of the Commune, including the assassination of the Archbishop of Paris during Bloody Week, and the assassination of Théophile Ferré on the Satory Plains after trial.