[Conference Calling, Bell Telephone Systems]

Grancel Fitz American

Not on view

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.

[Conference Calling, Bell Telephone Systems], Grancel Fitz (American, 1894–1963), Gelatin silver print

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