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

Editor: This is a photograph of Miss Crouzet, from the Actresses series, dating from around 1888 to 1892, produced by Kinney Brothers Tobacco Company. It’s a gelatin silver print, small and intimate. I’m curious about the conventions of beauty at the time; it has this dreamlike quality, doesn't it? How do you interpret this work? Curator: Indeed. The "actress" as a figure embodies a certain… malleability, don’t you think? They become vessels for projecting desires, anxieties. Kinney Brothers weren't selling art; they were selling an image linked to pleasure. This format, trading cards in cigarette packs, was a potent vector of cultural memory. What stories does Miss Crouzet tell, in your mind? Editor: I guess it tells the story of celebrity… a carefully constructed persona meant for consumption, mass consumption. But it also hints at the anonymity of it all; she's an archetype as much as an individual. Curator: Precisely! And think about the symbolism – the soft focus, the slightly suggestive pose – these were codes understood within the culture. Photography democratized image production but also shaped the symbolic language that linked products and aspirations. Editor: It’s like they're selling a feeling, a lifestyle connected to smoking… by using a woman’s image. Sort of like a collectible… almost a… secular icon? Curator: Exactly. A secular icon that carries the hopes, desires, and fears of the late 19th century, packaged with a cigarette. An actress embodies a constructed identity, reflecting broader shifts in our modern world. Do you see how that intersects here? Editor: I do, the mass production of these images creates a fascinating web between commerce, representation, and identity. So, the images become more than just promotional material... Curator: Precisely! They become artifacts of our collective longings, and anxieties.