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

Curator: I find this photograph intriguing; its warm sepia tones and compact size give it an intimate feel. Editor: This albumen print of Marie Yorke, produced circa 1890 by the Kinney Brothers, offers a window into the commodification of celebrity. It’s part of a series designed to promote Sweet Caporal Cigarettes. These were inserted into cigarette packs— talk about product placement! Curator: So, tobacco companies leveraged actresses like Marie Yorke to promote their products through these photograph prints. It also speaks volumes about 19th-century advertising and labor involved. Who were these women, and how were they compensated? Were these exploitative contracts? The process from studio photography, to the albumen printing itself... I wonder what their print run was. Editor: Exactly. We have to consider the social context here. The rise of mass media coincided with increasing industrialization and consumer culture. Yorke, presented as a desirable object, participates in marketing that normalizes a very gendered consumption pattern that equates actresses with products, their value assessed based on how successfully they can be sold. Curator: Looking closer, it’s compelling how photography itself was developing in these years. We see here a carefully staged composition, perhaps employing a photomontage, judging from the detail and depth. The striped fabric of her dress sleeves adds a captivating texture and geometric element within the portrait’s realism. Editor: Yes, there’s a negotiation of realities taking place—a "real" woman, posed, lit, and captured using developing photographic techniques and then inserted into an exploitative network of consumption that blurs performance and personality for commercial gain. Her identity is, in many ways, mediated by gender and capitalistic desires. Curator: Despite the commercial agenda, it's hard to deny her vibrant presence, skillfully framed within the technologies available at the time. Even through an image meant to promote a product, she presents herself directly to us. Editor: I agree. The portrait encapsulates complex intersectional questions of gender, representation, labor, and nascent consumerism, which allows us to interpret Yorke's gaze through a socio-political lens. I believe this also presents a powerful commentary on current norms and social problems in many modern capitalistic countries. Curator: A small card that unravels into so much! Considering its role as a promotional item sheds interesting light onto the history of material culture, technology, and industry. Editor: Absolutely, I hope our audience gains new understandings regarding consumerism in a patriarchal society!