El ojo policial y el perfilamiento racial en Buenos Aires. Explorando imágenes mestizas en la “Galería de Ladrones Conocidos”

Abstract

In the city of Buenos Aires at the beginning of the 20th century, a police publication entitled Galería de Ladrones Conocidos was released. It compiled a series of photographic portraits and filiation data of suspects and recidivists who frequented police stations. By revealing the relationships and tensions between racial categories and photographs, I will analyze how police classifications configure a dynamic of hyper-embrace visual whiteness. At the same time, the paper presents the idea of mestizo images which makes it possible to dislocate the hegemonic notion of miscegenation conceived as a process of social whitening.