What was the primary purpose of the original Kodak Shirley Card?
A) To test camera flash settings
B) To help calibrate color balance and exposure in photo printing
C) To advertise Kodak film
D) To train photographers in portrait lighting
Who was “Shirley” in the Kodak Shirley Card?
A) A fictional marketing mascot
B) A Kodak scientist who developed color film
C) The name of the model featured on the first card
D) The daughter of Kodak’s founder
In the wee days of the 20th Century (the 1950s to be precise), before Instagram and Photoshop, photographers and labs relied on cards to calibrate color balance and exposure for the newly popular chromogenic prints. Large manufacturers such as Kodak created what would become known as “The Shirley Card,” named for the Kodak employee who served as a model in the first rendition.
Technicians relied on the Shirley card to calibrate their printing machines. If the colors looked different, they would adjust their filters until they achieved the “correct” appearance for printing customers’ images. However, this process did not account for differences in the negatives, resulting in prints that could differ from one another or were outright wrong. Specifically, images with different lighting levels or with different subjects.
The results were biased. The images of darker-skinned subjects were underexposed or distorted as the film was calibrated for lighter-skinned subjects (hint: Shirley was white), resulting in poor contrast and detail. The Shirley Card had good company. “Flesh-toned” and “nude” products, such as Band-Aids, pantyhose, and makeup, had a “white”- leaning default in their color palettes, while other advertisements defaulted to white models for their products, with the exception of the mammy figure for the former Aunt Jemima syrup company.
Families of all ethnic backgrounds used cameras, just as all families used makeup and Band-Aids. It would take decades for Kodak and other film companies to correct their homogeneous practice, creating a film in the 1980s that could capture a “dark horse in low light.” However, it was not until the 1990s that the Shirley Card was updated, featuring three female models: an Asian woman, a white woman, and a Black woman.
Fortunately, today's ubiquitous use of digital photography has made the Shirley Card unnecessary since photographers and lab technicians can adjust a photo's exposure on a computer. However, technology is not void of faults. Major magazines and photographers continue to struggle with accurately presenting black and brown bodies.
Which begs the question:
Why is the Shirley Card still discussed in photography and media studies today?
A) It represents how technology can shape — and be shaped by — cultural assumptions about race and beauty.
B) All of the above.
Why is the Shirley Card still discussed in photography and media studies today?
A) It represents how technology can shape — and be shaped by — cultural assumptions about race and beauty.
B) All of the above.
Today, as you walk through the world, slow down and consider other areas where the default excludes particular individuals. What cultural norms do we unconsciously accept without considering their orientation or who is impacted? Now, more than ever, it is essential that we pay attention. Timothy Leary had two-thirds of his idea correct... “turn on and tune in.”
-trw