Police and crime scene detectives find skeletons often enough. Skeletons, by their very nature, have no fingerprints, and dental records provide positive identification only when the person is known and x-rays or special dental work are available for comparison.

Therefore, when conventional methods of discovery fail, forensic reconstruction sculptors are called in to fashion a recognizable cast or bust of a person's features and expression—a physiognomy (pronounced fi-zee-AH-neh-me)—from nothing more than a bare skull.

In the 19th century, two Germans, Julius Kollmann, an anatomist, and W. Büchly, a sculptor, set out to refine their method of reproducing the skulls of prehistoric peoples. In their quest for an organized system, they measured the facial tissues of scores of male and female cadavers. Their research helped to standardize the reconstruction procedure and led to regulation tissue-thickness charts. A Russian "face finder" and palentologist named M.M. Gerasimov first introduced the technique to criminologists in 1939, and his work was documented by Martin Cruz Smith through the wildly popular novel and movie, Gorky Park.

Once a relatively obscure profession, today there are a growing number of professionals who are spurred on by new studies with perfecting the methods.

Pictured below is the reconstruction of a subject I named "Orenthal"--a twenty-seven year old black male. The first photo shows how the jaw is glued on; in the second, clay strips are being laid and missing teeth are recreated; in the third picture I begin to add and redefine the details and features.