Otto Dyar. "Carole Lombard", c. 1933. Gelatin silver print, 13 7/8 × 10 1/2″ (35.2 × 26.7 cm)
TITLE_NAME :
Face Value. Celebrity Press Photography
15/09/2025 - 21/06/2026
MoMA - THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART
11 West 53 Street
NY 10019 New York
www.moma.org/
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.
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.
15/09/2025 - 21/06/2026
MoMA - THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART
11 West 53 Street
NY 10019 New York
www.moma.org/
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.
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.