THE FAMILY OF MAN EXHIBIT AND BOOK
CREATED BY EDWARD STEICHEN
ORIGINALLY OPENED IN 1955 THE MUSEM OF MODERN ART, NEW YORK
A DOCUMENTARY PHOTOGRAPHIC EXHIBIT AND BOOK
It must be a wonderful experience to walk though this exhibit of photographs documenting “The Family of Man,” and to linger and check each picture depicting so much human life and activity. No narration and/or interviews are needed, each photograph speaks for itself and then joins the overall collection of pictures creating a myriad of impressions. This show is a testament to the fact that documentary actuality and explorations come in all forms, not just on film or video. The title of the show was inspired by the expression “family of man” found in a speech by Abraham Lincoln.
The Family of Man Exhibit, created by Edward Steichen, is a documentary employing still photographs hung in an exhibition environment. It began life in The Museum of Modern Art, New York and ultimately traveled around the world to thirty-seven countries. It is now housed in Clervaux, Castle in Luxembourg, Edward Steichen’s birthplace. The exhibition underwent restoration and reopened to the public in 2012.
Photographs from the exhibit can be viewed in The Family of Man book version, with an introduction by Steichen and a prologue by Carl Sandburg. While the book cannot give us the same experience as viewing the show, it does present the photographs as a documentary compilation.
In the introduction to the book Steichen writes, “The exhibition, now permanently presented on the pages of this book, demonstrates that the art of photography is a dynamic process of giving form to ideas and of explaining man to man. It was conceived as a mirror of the universal elements and emotions in the everydayness of life – as a mirror of the essential oneness of mankind throughout the world.”
The pictures come from all over the planet. Steichen with the help of his wife and staff culled 503 photographs from the two million photographs submitted by amateurs and professionals. Two hundred and seventy-three photographers, male and female, from sixty-eight countries took the 503 photographs used in the show. Included in these numbers were many photographs from the US Library of congress and Life magazine. The show traveled worldwide during the Cold War. Steichen felt that it might help for the world to see the “essential oneness of mankind.” The photographs are grouped in themes including love, birth, work, play, death, pleasure, pain, fears, hopes, tears and laughter.
All of the photographs in the book are black and white. Photographs that depict love in many forms begin the story of The Family of Man. Not only lovers embracing but also love demonstrated in many forms including the love of parents for their children. There are photographs by well-known photographers like Henri Cartier-Bresson, Dorothea Lange, Robert Capa, Margaret Bourke-White, Diane and Allan Arbus, Mathew Brady and many more.
The exhibit is open in Luxembourg and is well worth a visit. The book version of The Family of Man is also available.
REVIEW BY J R MARTIN, director of Emmy nominated, Wrapped In Steel, a documentary about the Industrial community on the Southeast side of Chicago and Emmy award-winning Fired-up- Public Housing Is My Home, both documentaries aired nationally on PBS. AUTHOR CREATE DOCUMENTARY FILMS, VIDEOS AND MULTIMEDIA Also Director of the Documentary Course at Full Sail University. See other documentary reviews by James R Martin at https://www.jrmartinmedia.com/reviews
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