Bessie Sanson, from the Actresses series (N246), Type 1, issued by Kinney Brothers to promote Sporting Extra Cigarettes 1888 - 1892

Editor: So, here we have an albumen print from between 1888 and 1892, "Bessie Sanson, from the Actresses series (N246)," produced by Kinney Brothers Tobacco Company as a cigarette card. It’s fascinating to consider how something we'd find discarded became art. What strikes you about it? Curator: This piece compels us to examine the commodification of artistry and labor. Kinney Brothers, by mass-producing these cards, were essentially using Bessie Sanson’s image as a tool for selling their product, a tool produced using exploitative labor practices in the tobacco industry. It's vital to remember that an albumen print involves multiple layers of labour, from photographic process to industrial printing. Editor: I hadn't really considered it that way, focusing instead on the photograph itself. So, the context of its production almost overwhelms its aesthetic value for you? Curator: Not overwhelm, but rather informs it. How can we ignore the context of extraction and fabrication when looking at this artifact? The materials themselves, the paper, the albumen, speak to global networks of resource extraction and distribution that fuelled consumer culture. What appears delicate conceals a robust economic framework, often exploitative. Editor: I see what you mean. The delicate features of her portrait contrast sharply with the mass production techniques behind the cigarette card. Does this cheapening, for the means of consumption, mean that it can’t be appreciated aesthetically, and perhaps the focus should solely be on the social elements? Curator: No, not at all! It means we need to appreciate the layers of meaning interwoven within it. Acknowledging the social and economic elements adds depth to its aesthetic value. We can then read the portrait, and even Bessie’s expression, in terms of the performative labor involved in celebrity itself – an image manufactured for consumption, both literally and figuratively. Editor: I never thought I would appreciate cigarette cards in a museum! Thanks, it gives me a lot to think about, connecting materiality and meaning in this way. Curator: Exactly, art made for consumption carries multiple contexts and meanings that are hidden under initial perceptions.