[Advertisement for AT & T: Six Men on Telephones Sitting around a Table]

Grancel Fitz

1934 · Gelatin silver print · Photographs

No stranger to corporate culture, Grancel Fitz worked for some of the biggest brands in American industry, from Chevrolet Motor to Ivory Soap. In this photograph for the Bell System—AT&T’s nationwide monopoly on telecommunications—an executive echo chamber evokes this broader network. The published ad shows a grid superimposed across the image, segmenting these suits into the separate time zones of a conference call. Decades before the advent of Zoom, it visualizes a virtual boardroom, complete with a white-collar cast to control the lines.

Artist

Grancel Fitz

Date

1934

Medium

Gelatin silver print

Department

Photographs

Credit line

Ford Motor Company Collection, Gift of Ford Motor Company and John C. Waddell, 1987