Face Value invites us to take a close look at the celebrity-making machinery of the 20th-century Hollywood star system. For decades, film studios produced photographic portraits to promote the glamour of the actors they had under contract. This exhibition examines how these images were manipulated for public consumption in the decades before digital tools, AI technology, and social media revolutionized the process.
For MoMA’s founding film curator, Iris Barry, building an archive of images that documented the history of motion pictures was second only to collecting films. Barry’s initiative eventually led to the acquisition of editorial archives of two leading fan magazines, Photoplay (1911–80) and Dell (1921–76).
More than 60 photographers and filmmakers—from studio staffers to Andy Warhol—are represented in the exhibition, which combines untouched images with those that show evidence of the hands-on alterations that readied them for the press. Silhouetting, in-painting, masking, sectioning, and collage were applied not only to photographs of entertainers but also to those of sports figures, socialites, and politicians. Highlighting the radical editing practices, stylized motifs, and gender stereotypes inherent in the studio system, this exhibition offers a demystifying look at the early constructions of celebrity.
Organized by Ron Magliozzi, Curator, with Katie Trainor, Senior Collections Manager, and Cara Shatzman, Collection Specialist, Department of Film.