Phille Rankin, from the Actresses series (N245) issued by Kinney Brothers to promote Sweet Caporal Cigarettes 1890

Curator: Standing before us, we have a card print dating back to 1890, from the Metropolitan Museum’s collection here in New York. This is “Phille Rankin, from the Actresses series (N245)” issued by Kinney Brothers to promote Sweet Caporal Cigarettes. The photograph presents Ms. Rankin in an elegantly styled, though slightly obscure, three-quarters pose. Editor: Obscure? No, I find this strangely intimate. It’s a soft gaze, like a fleeting memory captured in sepia tones. She’s half-turned, and it gives off a feeling like you’ve almost surprised her in a moment of introspection. There's something very pictorialist about it. Curator: Precisely, her figure, particularly the elaborate lace collar and the details of her costume, blends with the soft-focus background which indicates Pictorialism—the late 19th century movement in photography—an attempt to align itself with the aesthetics of painting and printmaking, thereby granting itself legitimacy as a form of art rather than just simple documentation. Note how the light is diffused and dreamlike; it certainly elevates the image beyond mere commercial marketing material. Editor: True, and while it was intended to boost cigarette sales, it almost feels timeless. If you ignore the bottom-line intention here, the attention to line and form, it really is quite beautiful. This is art being co-opted by commerce. Also, I have to say, I do appreciate how this work is so intimate but that intimacy never turns into an exercise in “Othering”. She comes off like someone very relatable that the viewer, in their imagination, might even aspire to. Curator: These were different times, of course. Kinney Brothers weren’t exactly aiming for artistic legacy when commissioning these prints. It really shows how pervasive photography was becoming—used for art, business, personal use and celebrity. Editor: Definitely a sign of the times, and so, if anything, she is a poignant representation of that moment in time, a beautiful figure, delicately captured amidst the gears of commerce. That contradiction keeps it very interesting for me.