Allan Forman, The New York Journalist, from the American Editors series (N1) for Allen & Ginter Cigarettes Brands 1887

Curator: My eye is drawn to the details on this small, somewhat stiff card, especially given that it's a portrait of Allan Forman, a New York journalist, dating back to 1887. The publishers Allen & Ginter, tobacco manufacturers, included the image in a series called "American Editors." Editor: My first thought? Dapper but constricted. Look at that collar, starched within an inch of its life! And the scale of it; it’s minuscule, isn't it? It speaks of a disposable consumer culture. Is this printed, by chance? Curator: It is indeed a print, rendered from a graphite drawing. Consider how the symbolic value of editors and journalism itself were being elevated, turned into collectables, quite literally circulated within the economy through products. The gaze itself conveys power. Editor: Right. Let’s talk material. This would’ve been one in a set, traded amongst consumers, tucked into packs of cigarettes... imagine the machinery churning these out, the labor conditions...and all this designed to entice people to consume. Even the colors feel manufactured— a soft, muted palette chosen, printed perhaps on thin card stock with some kind of cheap ink. It reflects mass production rather than fine art. Curator: I am captivated by how carefully he’s posed. He’s very self-aware, even though the image would’ve been printed for wide, anonymous distribution. His monocle and jacket connote intellect and professional standing, an editor on the rise in a growing and changing media environment. But isn't the newspaper name “The Journalist” a bit too obvious? Editor: Oh, deliberately so! Part of the branding! But you're right. It’s also useful to observe the process by which the media industry transformed itself into content, or more bluntly, commodities; something to consume. Curator: It’s really striking how we still grapple with questions of the press’s role, authenticity, and access to knowledge, issues so overtly presented even in this simple piece of ephemera. Editor: I see a confluence of labor, materials, and commerce shaping not only a portrait but an industry. Fascinating, even within the limitations of the medium.