Frankil Kemble, from the Actors and Actresses series (N45, Type 1) for Virginia Brights Cigarettes 1885 - 1891

Curator: Here we have a portrait of Frankil Kemble, taken from the "Actors and Actresses" series produced by Allen & Ginter between 1885 and 1891, for Virginia Brights Cigarettes. It's a small albumen print, residing now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Editor: It has that sepia tone...makes her look like she's emerged from a forgotten dream. The way the light catches her hair feels almost theatrical, doesn't it? A bit like moonlight on stage. Curator: Exactly. These cards, tucked into cigarette packs, weren't just about advertising. They were miniature artworks bringing celebrity culture into everyday life, and think of the consumer economy this helped drive forward! Editor: That makes you think of the laborers involved in both sides of the image's creation and distribution... Who knew they were creating commodities of celebrity, while simultaneously turning art into something disposable. The albumen process itself involves a pretty laborious process, doesn’t it? Curator: Absolutely. Consider how the commodification of artistry was also very deliberately classed by what and who it portrays. The actress, her face, made easily reproducible with photography! Editor: It is hard to imagine now, with our mass culture and images plastered on everything we consume... Back then the scarcity probably added to its value. What a strange convergence: art, fame, labor, tobacco… Curator: That intersection gives us so much to consider—art was a democratic consumer product; a photograph of an actress in a packet of tobacco leaves meant that fame, craft and labor are intertwined! Editor: Seeing that confluence, really brings forward a new way of how the making, art and people can come together… Curator: Well, it all feels richer having walked through that frame for a while!