De Wolf Hopper and Della Fox, from the Actors and Actresses series (N45, Type 8) for Virginia Brights Cigarettes 1885 - 1891

Curator: This is a photograph, one of many printed and collected back in the late 19th century; this one comes from the "Actors and Actresses" series produced by Allen & Ginter between 1885 and 1891, and it features De Wolf Hopper and Della Fox. Editor: It's captivating. They're frozen mid-dance, a kind of awkward tango. The materiality screams cheap production – the way the sepia tones flatten the forms suggests a mass-produced collectible, designed more for distribution than longevity. Curator: And there is meaning within this cheap production – these images weren't "high art"; they were visual representations of popular culture, condensed for distribution with consumer products like cigarettes. What did these figures represent to those audiences? Editor: Ah, that’s key. The image as commodity, deeply enmeshed with capitalist culture, packaged within a habit. We think about actors and actresses being objects of desire, here, they’re quite literally objects. And in what labor conditions where these cards produced? Who photographed Hopper and Fox and where where they placed within that process of consumption? Curator: These small prints became a part of everyday life, little reminders of entertainment that reflected, and probably shaped, social values and ideals of beauty. Della Fox has the upward glance of a damsel in romantic narrative – De Wolf Hopper is almost comically formal as a counterpoint, their poses reflecting certain power dynamics. Editor: Interesting. And what are we to make of those costumes? Mass-produced reproductions mimicking elaborate garments for circulation and replication, the real bodies obscured by their own stage personae and mass reproduction of themselves. It certainly invites one to imagine the stages and theaters and cigarette factories bustling with late-industrial labor. Curator: We can interpret the symbolism here in terms of idealized beauty and talent of an industry in flux at the dawn of the modern media era. But looking deeper, the ephemeral nature of the materials echoes the fleeting nature of fame, reminding us that the brightest stars eventually fade. Editor: A poignant final observation that emphasizes the tangible and consumable nature of this fame, then, and our place within that. Curator: Indeed, a moment in performance, reified, distributed, collected – a small reflection of bigger stories.