Cropped, Chopped, and Silhouetted: Taking Celebrity at Face Value

Cara Shatzman | MOMA | 17th September 2025

Images are the fuel of celebrity culture. Whether it’s social media influencers, film stars or (increasingly) politicians, images are manipulated to flatter or to convey an idea. Archives of Hollywood studio photos show just how “ruthless” this process could be, with exaggerated images of femininity placed next to exaggeratedly masculine figures. One curator likens these images to the Pictures Generation artists who famously explored the gap between image and reality. Says another curator “celebrities are products”.