Somers, Pitcher, St. Louis Browns, from the Old Judge series (N172) for Old Judge Cigarettes 1888

This is a photographic print of Somers, a pitcher for the St. Louis Browns, produced by Goodwin & Company around 1888 as part of their Old Judge Cigarettes series. The sepia tone flattens the image, reducing depth and emphasizing the subject's form. Somers is centrally positioned, his arms crossed, creating a closed, self-contained shape. This compositional choice draws attention to the graphic quality of the image rather than a dynamic sense of action. The muted tones and the way Somers' uniform blends with the background, speak to a tension between figure and ground, typical of late 19th-century photography. The formal structure—the framing, the pose, the tonal range—serves to categorize and present Somers as a representative type, an athlete commodified as both a baseball player and an advertisement. The abstraction inherent in photography transforms Somers into a sign, one embedded within a network of cultural and commercial meanings. This tension between individual and type, art and commerce, continues to inform our reading of photographs today.