Porter, Pitcher, Brooklyn, from the Old Judge series (N172) for Old Judge Cigarettes 1887 - 1890

Curator: The sepia tones of this baseball card immediately evoke a bygone era. We're looking at "Porter, Pitcher, Brooklyn, from the Old Judge series (N172) for Old Judge Cigarettes," dating from 1887 to 1890 and crafted by Goodwin & Company. What are your initial thoughts? Editor: Well, besides the fact that someone needs to teach me how to do a backflip, I’m struck by the unusual composition. One player reaching up while the other is airborne... I can practically smell the cigar smoke and the leather of their gloves! This was pure marketing strategy leveraging new sports celebrity. Curator: Indeed. Note how the photographer has positioned Porter. There’s a clear articulation of form, emphasizing his body in motion. It almost reads as a sequence, isolating two phases of a single action into separate, distinct images presented together, creating an appealing visual rhythm. Editor: Interesting! I'm drawn to the idea of how the photographer staged this. Goodwin and Company were mass-producing these cards to sell tobacco products, weren't they? You can almost imagine the studio setup: the makeshift backdrop, the ballplayer posed multiple times for the camera. We’re talking about early sports memorabilia being directly tied to an emerging consumer culture. Curator: Precisely. This tension between the candid sporting moment and carefully constructed imagery is crucial. It highlights the dual nature of early photography - both document and construction. Observe the almost classical arrangement, too, in relation to painting conventions of the era, like portraiture. The framing provides a sense of monumentality despite its relatively small scale. Editor: But, it also speaks to the democratization of image making! Suddenly, photography offered this possibility for the working class to become enmeshed with what they saw, smoked, and valued. Goodwin and Company put labor in focus--literally through photographs. This also highlights how value is produced. These cards would have been worthless if it weren’t for these figures like Porter demonstrating prowess, talent, and sheer grit! Curator: I agree. It showcases a fascination with athletic prowess. Looking at this photograph through the lens of advertising offers fascinating insights into how desire and aspirations were cultivated through mass production. It also serves as a reminder that photographic conventions shape how we see even so-called ‘natural’ actions like pitching a ball. Editor: So next time I’m contemplating buying cigarettes or a piece of sports history, I’ll remember Porter's floating form – a testament to labor, marketing and art intertwined. Curator: An elegantly formed synergy! Thanks for helping to illuminate these multiple dimensions inherent in the structure of this piece.