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The Family of Man at the Museum of Modern Art: The Power of the Image in 1950s America
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 30 July 2009
Extract
The family of man was an important cultural event of the 1950s. This great photographic exhibition, which drew record crowds at the Museum of Modern Art and attracted over 9,000,000 people on its sixyear, world-wide tour, was the work of Edward Steichen, who saw the opportunity for a retrospective on the history of photography as well as a comment on the perils of modern-day society. The exhibition took on a life of its own. It surpassed in popularity even the optimistic prediction of Steichen and defied the bland skepticism of other departments within the Museum. Museum workers received their first bonus because of its success. Popular magazines and newspapers from all over the world saw in the exhibition a penetratingly simple statement about the first decade of the nuclear age, and millions of people became acquainted with a photographic language to which they had not been exposed before.
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References
NOTES
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6. Two sets of these photographs have helped make this exhibition come to life. One set of about 25 photographs was taken by Ezra Stoller. It is reproduced, in part, in the Delux Edition of The Family of Man. The other set of 65 photographs was commissioned by the Museum of Modern Art and is held by the Photography Department. I wish to thank Grace Mayer, curator of the Steichen Archives, for bringing this set to my attention.
7. I have learned much from Mr. Miller, whom I interviewed on November 2–3, 1984, at his home in Orinda, California. Details relating to procedures or chronology are taken from these conversations, except as noted.
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