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The resemblance between people (The Family of Man)

The Family of Man. MoMa, New York. 1955
The Family of Man. MoMa, New York. 1955

In 1955, Edward Steichen (1) was the curator of the exhibition The Family of Man (2) at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. This retrospective is regarded as one of the most remarkable projects of photographic humanism and in the history of photography.

The exhibition and the book The Family of Man used visual narrative to describe the similarities between different types of people (3). Steichen's team searched through thousands of photographs to make visible the democratisation of photography (4).

Keywords

Humanism Visual narrative

References

Texts

  • 1. The Family of Man [en línia]. Steichen Collections. Disponible a: < https://steichencollections-cna.lu/eng/collections/1_the-family-of-man > (Data Consulta: 18 de març de 2021)
  • 2. MoMA [en línia]. The Family of Man. Disponible a: < https://www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/2429?#installation-images > (Data Consulta: 18 de març de 2021)
  • 3. The Museum of Modern Art (1955). The Family of Man. New York: MoMA. Introduction by Edward Steichen. P. 3.
    “We sought and selected photographs, made in all parts of the world, of the gamut of life from birth to dead, with emphasis on the daily relationships of man to himself, to his family, to the community and to the world we live in —subject matter ranging from babies to philosophers, from the kindergarten to the university, from primitive peoples to the Councils of the United Nations”.
  • The Museum of Modern Art (1955). The Family of Man. New York: MoMA. Introduction by Edward Steichen. P. 3.
    “For almost three years we have been searching for these images. Over two million photographs from every corner of the earth have come to us —from individuals, collections and files. We screened them until we had ten thousand. Then came the almost unbearable task of reducing these to 503 photographs from 68 countries. The photographers who took them —273 men and women —are amateurs and professionals, famed and unknown”.

Images

  • The Museum of Modern Art (1955, renewed 1983). The Family of Man. New York: MoMA.
    Wayne Miller, U.S.A. P. 23; Richard Harrington, Artic. P. 28; Nat Farbman, Bechuanaland. P. 58; Nina Leen, U.S.A. P. 59.