In “Preface Value: Celebrity Media Photography”, Moma curator Ron Magliozzi tries to overwhelm us. This is not a conjecture; he said as much. But his target exceeded the bombing. “Celebrities are created for consumption, and people consume it,” Magliozzi told Observer. “I want tourists to consume it critically. That’s the concept behind it.”
Trading scarcity to provide rich and stereotypical techniques for simple plexiglass installations, the photos presented in the museum’s Titus and Morita gallery are beautiful but not precious. The arrangement of 239 photos reflects how we constantly encounter celebrity culture almost everywhere. While most images on the show date back to the classical Hollywood era, in the age of social media, “face value” is crucial to our life experiences. After all, Magriozzi pointed out that the president is a celebrity.
Early in Magliozzi’s career at MOMA, he worked in a warehouse, separating media materials from photos. He recalls a curator commenting that he was spoiled because many of the photos were tagged – not suitable for display and boring. But Magliozzi thinks the etching and drawing dimensions add something to the point that highlights the photos as working files.
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These “flaws” are indeed the most interesting part of the exhibition. In some photos, the white ink silhouette adds a creepy one: the subject’s head seems to float or hover. In other cases, the tape line marks the image crop, constructing the legs of actress Myrna Loy or the kiss of lovers. There are also photos with cover, intervention and collage. The result is a metaphorical (but also literal) celebrity anniversary to mass consumption.
“These photos almost look precocious compared to today using digital technology and AI,” Magliozzi said with a smile. “They are so simulated, and the editing adds charm to it.”
He asserted that the backs of the photos were equally striking, marking where they were indicated. These images are mainly from two editorial collections: Photograph (1911-80) and Dell (1921-76), all legendary Hollywood publications whose archives were acquired by early Moma film curator Iris Barry.
The cultural touch points in the exhibition are multifaceted. Marilyn Monroe took the last photo in a chair, sitting in a dark shirt and high heels. She seems to be full of energy and energy here, with no signs of anxiety or fear, which may suggest her impending death.
In another photo, a mirror doubles the face of Hollywood heroine Carole Lombard, which is bothers and mysterious, as if she is keeping it secret. Pencil’s thin eyebrows were above her upwardly fixed, glassy eyes, and her black lips smiled slightly. You can’t take your eyes off her.
In addition to Hollywood stars, there are politicians, socialites, athletes, and even dogs. Among them are Oprah Winfrey, Anna May Wong, Clara Bow, Jackie Robinson, Joan Crawford and many more.
But for all famous faces, most of what makes “face value” so attractive is the subtext. The rich perceptual blocks of introductory text set the stage, then depend on the audience to find the line. While some museum people may be eager for supplemental texts, the lack of clumsy interpreters will let the photos breathe, providing visitors with their own space for analysis. Race is one of the themes on the table here – Magliozzi and his team of curators mined archives of underrepresented groups and celebrities of color. The other is gender, because the exaggerated femininity is juxtaposed with the exaggerated male counterparts. The woman smiled suggestively. The man holds a gun.
These images appear on the surface, but for those familiar with the classic Hollywood galaxy, the images are disturbing, with performers lacking agents. “Celebrity is the product,” Magliozzi said. “They are actually properties of the studio and are therefore considered as mockery or objects.” The top floor of the exhibition house is objectively designed to show the most photos and markups. At the foot of the escalator, Andy Warhol’s screen flashes the faces of 60s celebrities.
MOMA has long been a star-centric device. In “Pre-value”, glittering black floors and navy-painted walls evoke old Hollywood. When deciding which ones to choose from the 16,500 photos in the museum’s repository, Magliozzi searched for photos that were particularly beautiful or contained unique visual patterns such as shadows. He added: “The spacing between the lighting and the photos controls your experience.”
The combination he chose will surely keep the mystery of the industry alive, and the sexy “face value” cannot be ignored. Magliozzi calls it the “diet” part, where couples kiss or prepare for romantic tension. He notes that the lewdness depicted on social media today can be traced back to classical Hollywood sexual behavior, with similar patterns of pornography before early theaters. Indeed, it is difficult to move away.
“Preface Value: Photography by Celebrity Press” will be available at the Museum of Modern Art in New York as of June 21, 2026.
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