Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-94d59 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-28T22:01:48.417Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

4 - The actress as photographic icon: from early photography to early film

from Part I - Turning points

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

John Stokes
Affiliation:
King's College London
Maggie B. Gale
Affiliation:
University of Manchester
Get access

Summary

Of the many surviving relics of the Victorian and Edwardian actress, the photograph is among the most enduring and more ubiquitous. These images, most often sepia prints mounted on stiff beige cardboard on whose front is imprinted the name and address of a photographic studio and on whose reverse appear testimonials to the photographer's prowess and patronage, fill the cabinets of collectors or inhabit museum file boxes and display cases. Some images are fixed upon glass or china, some upon thin iron plates. Some images are reproduced and reach their consumers through early or advanced print technology; some are even printed in colour. By and large the images are stable enough to resist deterioration. Although made from light directed at surfaces sensitised with silver and treated with chemicals, the images remain unless dampness, mould or unusually strong sunlight causes them to fade. They survive. Thus these once inexpensive, supposedly ephemeral objects come readily to hand - valuable (and now comparatively expensive) when we query the actress's identity, her career trajectory, her professional, social and private status. They address the question: if the actress isn't seen upon the stage, how else - and where else - is she seen, identified, celebrated, memorialised, turned into an icon? What connects the spectator or former spectator or would-be spectator to the actress? How have photography and the photograph impacted on the professional and private lives of greater and lesser actresses?

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2007

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×