Anna Suits, from the Actresses series (N245) issued by Kinney Brothers to promote Sweet Caporal Cigarettes 1890

Curator: Let's take a look at "Anna Suits," an albumen print dating back to 1890. It's part of the Actresses series (N245), and was produced by Kinney Brothers as an advertising premium for Sweet Caporal Cigarettes. Editor: The sepia tones give it such an intimate, almost faded glamour. She's pulling up her stocking... There's this sense of implied invitation, doesn't there? Curator: Precisely. These were mass-produced images, using photography and printmaking techniques to reach a wide consumer base. Consider the social context: tobacco companies leveraged idealized, eroticized images of women to brand and sell their products. Editor: It's such a blatant objectification, packaged as innocent entertainment. And yet, I find myself drawn to the subject's gaze, even now, a century later. Curator: Her look definitely sells the image, but her clothes and her intimate posture have commercial purpose in its construction and the way in which such a picture has to address moral concerns within its own era. What do we see in the choice to include such an act as pulling on a stocking? Editor: Maybe a glimpse into the theatrical backstage? A reminder that artifice always underlies desire. Curator: Indeed. And the photograph's circulation wasn’t limited to wealthy patrons; they went directly into cigarette packs, making it accessible to the working class. So we have to consider questions of accessibility. Editor: Interesting. Something seemingly innocent carries these loaded ideas of labor, consumption, and societal norms. Did you notice she's also wearing what appears to be a tennis outfit? Curator: I had missed the racquet on my first pass. It's striking how those details were all part of creating allure within a particular framework. That tension between aspiration and everyday experience gives it a compelling dimension, for sure. Editor: Absolutely. Looking closer has stripped away my initial impression. There's much more beneath this veneer of old-fashioned charm, revealing uncomfortable truths about commodification and exploitation, and all kinds of strange fantasies. Curator: It shows just how profoundly objects, even ephemeral ones, like these advertising prints, are rooted in labor, power dynamics and shifting attitudes. There’s something unexpectedly visceral and complex within it after all.