Police Image of a Girl Detained for Unconventional Dress/look, USA, 1940

The photograph shows Police Image Of A Girl Detained For Unconventional Dress/Look, USA, 1940. Made in 1940, it is the kind of image that turns a date in a history book into something you can actually see.

The first half of the 1940s was consumed by the Second World War, the largest conflict in human history, and photography went to war with it — small 35mm cameras and wire services meant pictures from the front could reach newspaper readers within days.

What makes everyday photographs like this one compelling is the details at the edges: the clothes, the signs, the tools, the postures. They preserve texture that history books flatten out.