Portrait of an Alien Enemy

A photograph on an identity paper has several dimensions. The document itself sets the historical context and this situates the portrait in a sociopolitical landscape. And sometimes, as in this case, both portrait and landscape are captured at a particularly dramatic moment. This photo of the young Anna Freud appears in fact on two documents, both issued at the Albany Street Police Station, London.2 Both the primary document depicted here - Certificate of Registration of an Alien Enemy - and the other, a permit allowing the holder to travel from London to the port of Falmouth from noon 16 to noon 17 August, were issued on 14 August 1914. (Her ship to Genoa was in fact due to leave Falmouth at midnight on 16 August.)

War between Great Britain and the Austro-Hungarian Empire had been declared nine days previously, on 5 August. That ship was almost certainly her last good opportunity to return home; her documents had to be put in order instantly and getting hold of an identity photo was essential. Nowadays identity photos are commonplace but Anna would have arrived in England without a passport and left without one. A passport was unnecessary. The British government's decision to register enemy nationals, taken on 8 August 1914 under the Defence of the Realm Act, marks the beginning of a new phase in its relations to citizens and to foreigners in the country.3 In the documents that the state now begins issuing, the