Edward Hugh "Ned" Hanlon, Center Field, Pittsburgh, from the Old Judge series (N172) for Old Judge Cigarettes 1888

Editor: This 1888 image, "Edward Hugh 'Ned' Hanlon, Center Field, Pittsburgh," offers an intriguing glimpse into the early days of baseball, originating from the Old Judge Cigarettes series. My first thought: sepia dreams. There’s a ghostliness, almost, a quiet melancholy. Curator: That spectral quality is intriguing, considering the context of its creation and dissemination. Goodwin & Company used these photographic prints as trade cards, inserting them into cigarette packs. Editor: Right, instantly connecting this "high art" with a mass produced consumable product—the ephemeral nature of a cigarette pack colliding with this effort at documentation or memorialization. How very Benjaminian. What strikes me is how tactile the image looks. You can almost feel the coarse material of Hanlon's uniform. Curator: Tactility is definitely one key feature of its aesthetic impact. Look closely at the interplay of light and shadow across his face, defining his mustache and concentrated gaze. The backdrop is purposefully simple. A brick building rises in the distance. It offers a visual rhyme of verticals and horizontals with Hanlon’s vertical figure juxtaposed against the horizontal lines of the fence. The visual rhythm emphasizes a balance between individual presence and architectural context. Editor: The scale, too, speaks volumes about accessibility and dissemination. As part of a series designed to boost cigarette sales, there’s a blurring of the boundaries between portraiture and advertising. You mentioned light. Note also how the almost clinical lighting levels him. Curator: Indeed. The photographic medium itself further collapses distinctions. Here, photography flattens lived experience into a portable, commodifiable image, destined to circulate in the marketplace and culture in tandem. This form of visual production played a key role in shaping and solidifying celebrity culture, wouldn’t you agree? Editor: Absolutely. Think about the conditions of labor involved: the photographers, the factory workers assembling the cigarettes and inserting the cards. The commodification of athleticism intersects directly with labor practices and emerging forms of marketing. Curator: Viewing this through a formal lens, consider how the pose encapsulates anticipation. A perfectly composed geometry of body, ball, and distant architecture. Each compositional choice leads the viewer’s eye throughout the frame, creating harmony. Editor: Exactly—Harmony created from a collision of labor, industrial process, celebrity culture, and consumption! An uncanny still frame in cigarette packs for our evaluation over a century later. Curator: Ultimately, a compelling example of art operating as a vehicle for culture, beautifully crystallized in a single photographic print.