We’re in a mug shot craze; it’s all the hype!
This post is for inquiring minds who want to know more about mug shots without getting entangled in today’s political fray.
First, let’s consider the loose and casual use of the term mug shot, you know, when we talk and laugh about each other’s mugs or photos.
When you consider that a mug shot is a photograph of an individual from the shoulders upward, I have mug shots, you have mug shots, and most people have mug shots.
Mug shot derives from the word mug, slang for face, and shot, a photo or picture.
Some of my school pictures are mug shots.
Passport photos are mug shots.
My official identification is a laminated card with my mug shot. And it’s a real mug; I hate that photo! But I get a do-over before 2023 ends.
Mug shots are advantageous and required by different agencies and organizations for identification based on various reasons tied to business, local, state, and federal procedures or laws.
We love taking mug shots or selfies! Some are stern and macho, and others are glitzy with pouty lips.
Frankly, I prefer a mug shot over a head-to-toe photo. My mug shots are all over Facebook, Instagram, and probably places I’m unaware of.
Although I refer to my driver’s license as a picture or photo, it’s a mug shot of me. As I said, a replacement is forthcoming. The next one got to be better!
The Online Cambridge Dictionary defines the official use of mug shot as “a photograph taken by the police of a person who has been charged with a crime.”
Most criminal mug shots are two-part photos, one front view and the other a side view.
A criminal is known by their mug shot that’s taken after an arrest. The alleged offender’s image serves as a record for victims, the public, and investigators to identify the arrested individual.
There are criminal mug shot books, most wanted posters with mug shots, and police use mug shots in various media alerts and warnings.
Some firsts about photos and mug shots
Louis-Jacques-Mande Daguerre, a French artist and photographer, invented the first publicly used photographic process called the daguerreotype (named after him) in the 1830s.
The earliest photographs taken of arrested individuals date back to the 1840s.
Some firsts about photographs and or mug shots of U.S. presidents
Who was the first president to be photographed?
According to the Smithsonian Magazine, William Henry Harrison was the first photographed president, but the image was lost. A picture of John Quincy Adams is the oldest surviving picture of a president, but the photo is post-presidency, taken in 1843, a decade after his time in office.
President James K. Polk’s picture, taken inside the White House in 1849, is the first surviving photograph of a sitting U.S. president.
We have a wealth of presidents’ photographs since the ones taken of President Polk.
When it concerns mug shots, Americans prefer the unofficial and endearing ones for our presidents as we do for ourselves.
Groundbreaking or unprecedented acts have their place in America’s White House history, and the first arrest and mug shot of a U.S. president took place on August 25, 2023.
Continue to pray for our leaders and our country.