Mlle. Deschamps, from the Actors and Actresses series (N45, Type 8) for Virginia Brights Cigarettes 1885 - 1891

Editor: Here we have "Mlle. Deschamps, from the Actors and Actresses series (N45, Type 8) for Virginia Brights Cigarettes," dating between 1885 and 1891, by Allen & Ginter. It’s an albumen print that looks like a vintage photograph mounted on card stock. Given its origin as a cigarette card, what can we say about its place in the art world? Curator: Precisely. Let's consider the commodification inherent in its creation. Allen & Ginter weren't aiming for high art; they were leveraging celebrity—Mlle. Deschamps’s image—to move a product: cigarettes. This piece sits at the intersection of image production, labor (both Mlle. Deschamps’ and the factory workers’), and ultimately, consumption. Note the albumen print, a photographic process, likely chosen for mass production, quite a distance from a unique handmade photograph, right? Editor: So, the artistry is less about the individual photograph and more about the industrial process? How the image becomes a consumable item? Curator: Exactly! The image itself is a portrait, echoing trends in painting and even ukiyo-e with its focus on actresses, but its primary function wasn’t aesthetic appreciation. It's about embedding the image within a larger network of commercial exchange. This challenges our traditional ideas about the value of art. Editor: So it’s almost like a commentary on how even art and artists can become products in a capitalist society? It certainly puts a different lens on portraiture. Curator: It’s a reflection on material culture itself, and what and who we give value to, through those items of material culture. Think about who was intended to engage with the image and in what material settings and everyday actions. Editor: I hadn't thought about art existing so bluntly within commercial systems. I’ll definitely consider materiality more from now on. Curator: It reframes our understanding of the purpose and value assigned to art objects in a new industrialized age.