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The Family of Man is the most widely seen exhibition in the history
of photography. The book of the exhibition, still in print, is also
the most commercially successful photobook ever published. First
shown at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1955, the
exhibition travelled throughout the United States and to forty-six
countries, and was seen by over nine million people. Edward
Steichen conceived, curated and designed the exhibition. He
explained its subject as `the everydayness of life' and `the
essential oneness of mankind throughout the world'. The exhibition
was a statement against war and the conflicts and divisions that
threatened a common future for humanity after 1945. The popular
international response was overwhelmingly enthusiastic. Many
critics, however, have dismissed the exhibition as a form of
sentimental humanism unable to address the challenges of history,
politics and cultural difference.This book revises the critical
debate about The Family of Man, challenging in particular the
legacy of Roland Barthes's influential account of the exhibition.
The expert contributors explore new contexts for understanding
Steichen's work and they undertake radically new analyses of the
formal dynamics of the exhibition. Also presented are documents
about the exhibition never before available in English.
Commentaries by critical theorist Max Horkheimer and novelist
Wolfgang Koeppen, letters from photographer August Sander, and a
poetic sequence on the images by Polish poet Witold Wirpsza enable
and encourage new critical reflections. A detailed survey of
audience responses in Munich from 1955 allows a rare glimpse of
what visitors thought about the exhibition. Today, when armed
conflict, environmental catastrophe and economic inequality
continue to threaten our future, it seems timely to revisit The
Family of Man.
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