This picture preserves a moment few cameras ever caught — Jane Fonda was handcuffed in November 1970 at Cuyahoga County Jail. It was taken in 1970, and like the best archival images it needs almost no explanation — the frame tells its own story.
The 1970s had a grittier texture than the decades before it — economic shocks, urban decline, and political distrust, but also bold fashion, muscle cars, and the first stirrings of the digital age. Color film had become cheap and ubiquitous, so the decade survives in vivid Kodachrome hues.
Most photography of the period chased celebrities and headlines, which makes surviving images of daily routine all the more precious. This is what the world actually looked like when nobody thought it was worth remembering.
