Annie O'Neil, from the Actors and Actresses series (N145-8) issued by Duke Sons & Co. to promote Duke Cigarettes 1890 - 1895

Editor: This photograph, a portrait of Annie O'Neil, an actress, caught my eye. It’s from the Actors and Actresses series by Duke Sons & Co., around 1890-1895. It’s so simple, really, just a print on card stock, yet it has a certain evocative quality. What is your take on it? Curator: What strikes me is not the sitter’s individual identity, but the means of production and the social function of this image. These cards were inserted in cigarette packs, right? We need to consider the labor involved – the photographer, the printers, the workers in the tobacco factory. How does the consumption of tobacco and celebrity converge here? Editor: I hadn't thought of it like that. So, you're saying it's more about the industry behind it than the artistic merit? Curator: Exactly. The artistic merit, as you call it, is carefully manufactured. The pictorial style softens the image and promotes an idealized version of beauty, incentivizing consumers to buy the cigarettes. The materials themselves, the paper and the ink, the printing process – all contribute to a carefully crafted system of consumption. Think about how the photograph is just another commodity here, no different in principle from the cigarettes themselves. Editor: So the image itself is essentially a marketing tool, its artistic qualities serving the purpose of selling cigarettes? Curator: Precisely! The boundaries between high art, commercial enterprise, and everyday consumption become blurred. We are left to ask, what is the nature of artistic value when tied so inextricably to commerce and labor? Editor: I see what you mean. Looking at it that way really shifts the focus. It’s less about her, Annie O’Neil, as an actress, and more about her image as a sellable asset within a larger system. Curator: Right. That's a materialist approach – focusing on the means of production, the material reality, and the social implications embedded within the object. Editor: Well, I'll definitely think differently about these types of images going forward. Thanks!