I’ve always been morbidly interested in mugshots. Apparently I’m not alone: It is a popular feature of some newspaper and electronic-news sites.

Channel 5, the Fox affiliate in Las Vegas, posts the mugshots from the city on a monthly basis. In April, there were 689 mug shots. People are male and female; fat or meth-freak skinny; young and old; black, white, latino, Asian. But this is passingly strange: There is no context for the photos.

There’s a name, but KVVU Fox-5 doesn’t include the charges. We don’t know what they did, if they did the crime for which they have presumably been charged. Again, we presume that most or all of these folks are from Las Vegas, but perhaps they include mugshots from those arrested in Henderson or North Las Vegas? We don’t know. Most newspapers that print mugshots include at least some of that background information from the blotter.

As I say, mugshots are inherently interesting. I look at the site to see the faces of those who are, apparently, in trouble for something. But I’m not sure what Fox-5’s posting of the photos is supposed to be. Devoid of context, it’s not journalism. But it’s an interesting art project.

http://www.fox5vegas.com/story/25182410/april-mugshots

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