Harkins, Pitcher, Baltimore Orioles, from the Old Judge series (N172) for Old Judge Cigarettes 1888

Curator: This photographic print, titled "Harkins, Pitcher, Baltimore Orioles," comes to us from 1888 and was created by Goodwin & Company as part of the Old Judge Cigarettes series. Editor: There’s a wistful, sepia-toned echo in this piece. I’m immediately drawn to the solemn stillness, the almost ghostly figure of the baseball player suspended in time. It’s as if the artist captured a fleeting moment of grace, or perhaps pre-game contemplation. Curator: Observe how the composition directs the gaze. The portrait, meticulously rendered, exhibits a subtle tonal gradation, enhancing the subject's form. His placement centrally emphasizes his importance as both a figure and signifier within this commercial enterprise. Editor: Absolutely! I love how Harkins is holding that baseball bat – cradled, almost. There's a palpable sense of deferred energy. I wonder what went through his mind then: anxiety? hope? Probably just thinking about the game! It is amazing, though, how advertising could immortalize people in that time. Curator: Indeed. Let us consider the formal properties of photography itself as medium here, with emphasis on texture as message, tone as affect. Every element operates within a carefully constructed visual regime. Also, what would Barthes say, for instance? The baseball player can be analyzed, can't it, as a complex interplay between denotation and connotation. Editor: Wow. Barthes, now that’s throwing hard, right? See, I see this as… the visual representation, perhaps, of a kind of hopeful spirit from simpler times. Maybe there's an undercurrent of melancholic, looking towards future. The picture speaks in its antiquated form with gentle intimacy to things passing, the nature of glory... and good cigarette branding. Curator: A nuanced perspective, and, on reflection, something to chew on further, in understanding, this art that holds within itself our history as well our theory! Editor: Here here to history... in a snapshot!