St. Felix Sisters, From the Actors and Actresses series (N45, Type 1) for Virginia Brights Cigarettes 1885 - 1891

Editor: So this is a photographic print from Allen & Ginter, circa 1885-1891, titled "St. Felix Sisters, From the Actors and Actresses series (N45, Type 1) for Virginia Brights Cigarettes." It’s… sepia toned, faded, almost ghost-like, and very much an advertisement. What strikes you about it? Curator: Well, right away I notice the industrial context. It's a trade card, mass-produced and distributed with cigarettes. We need to examine the implications of how art, or in this case photography, is being integrated into a burgeoning consumer culture. Editor: So, not necessarily about the subjects themselves, the sisters? Curator: Of course, but primarily about the *means* of distribution. Who was buying Virginia Brights cigarettes? What were the material conditions that made this type of advertisement possible? The paper stock, the printing technology… these all tell a story. Consider that photographs at this time still required relatively skilled labor. Editor: I never really thought about the process of *making* an advertisement. It's presented so seamlessly, as if it’s always just *been*. Curator: Exactly. Consider the power dynamics at play. The St. Felix Sisters, whoever they were, became commodities themselves, part of the tobacco industry's machinery to create desire. The mass production of these images enabled a widespread circulation of celebrity culture, fundamentally changing how people saw and consumed art – or at least, images. Editor: So by looking at the materials and context, we are also learning about cultural consumption. Curator: Precisely. And by considering that a photographic studio portrait also took labor from both the photographers and those sitting to have their likeness taken, the more we study it the clearer it becomes. The "how" something is made deeply impacts the "why". What seemed at first like a simple portrait reveals complex relationships.