Movie Theater Lobby Cards

An independent cinema near campus displays original lobby cards from the films they screen. Small 11-by-14-inch stills printed on heavy cardstock, these cards have a visual weight that a digital poster on a screen can't match. Colors are saturated in a way that modern printing rarely achieves. Chosen to sell the film's mood rather than its plot, images show a close-up of a face, a landscape, a moment of tension. Rotating with each screening program, the cards sit in simple black wood frames that keep the focus on the image. Using these physical objects to signal that the films they show are worth a certain kind of attention — the kind a framed image commands — is a curatorial choice that digital lobbies simply can't make.