The Family of Man

Every time I open a new book on photography I read something about The Family of Man exhibition, curated by Edward Steichen at the Museum of Modern Art, New York in 1955.  So now I have THE book where I can see all the images together in one place.

In his introduction Edward Steichen talks about "Photographs concerned with man in relation to his environment, to the beauty and richness of the earth he has inherited and what he has one with his inheritance, the good and the great things, the stupid and the destructive things."

The exhibition has a linear and I think quite pedestrian progression, starting with couples, lovers and then looking at marriage in various cultures and followed by pregnancy and birth, children, families, work, death, war, industry, religion, the youth and ending with images of government and specifically the UN.  Although the exhibition according to Steichen is about all man (humans) and all religions I can't help but think it has a powerfully idealised American cultural flavour.  It is certainly a very hopeful and optimistic collection of photographs even though it also shows some of the horrors of being human; war, death, immense sadness and suffering in some images.  But the overall impression I get from it is one of optimism about the future and about the human family's potential ability to overcome the hardships of the war years moving forward.  I suppose that reflects the feelings of society during the 50s from what I have learnt in documentaries and history books.

There are a wide variety of photographers included in the exhibition from very well known names such as Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Frank, Frank Capa, and Dorothea Lange amongst others, along with lesser known names such as Paul Himmel who I wrote about recently and some totally unknown names too.  There are photographers and photographs from all over the world.

What I have noticed while looking at the images is that there is across most of them a simplicity and honesty which is not what we'd expect from photographic images we are faced with today.  Today's photographs, perhaps what I'm talking about here is visual imagery, are so sophisticated, and often times manipulative and knowing.  If you compare the family and children's photographs in this exhibition with the photographs you might expect from a family photographer today there is a huge difference. There is an expectation today that such photographs will be very glossy, perhaps have several filters, and quite fantasty-like, like photographs from a perfect dream almost.  I have found it quite interesting to see these earlier, simpler examples of photographs and like them very much in particular ones by Conseula Kanaga, Wayne Miller, and Elliot Erwitt and plenty more too.  I love the family group shots.  They are very matter of fact.  There are 5 family group shots from various parts of the world and not one of them looks fake, or idealised in any way - I am aware that earlier I said the exhibition as a whole was rather idealised - perhaps I should have said idealogical, but these family shots seem much less contrived than the ones I feel I ought to be aspiring towards today.

Once of my favourite photographs in the whole book is by Howard Sochurek from Life taken in India of a group of workers on some scaffolding at the entrance (taken from inside ) of what I think must a be a rail tunnel.  The figures are silhouetted against the daylight and look tiny in comparison to the tunnel and construction process.  I also think a photograph by Jerry Cooke, also Life, of a woman sitting with her head in her arms on a bench perhaps crying is very powerful and quite modern unlike some others.

All the photographs together feel like an important record of the time - a time that is not really that long ago but seems to represent the end of an era and also totally alien to ours.  Life is so different now - it seems extraordinary somehow.  As I look through the book I can almost hear one of those 50s clipped, quite speedy male voices that we are so used to hearing narrating news reels and documentary films from that era describing the images.

I have to say I really enjoy looking through this book.  I find it fascinating and the photographs quite compelling.

The exhibition is still intact and has a permanent home in Luxembourg.  I think I would love to go and see it if I'm ever there and who knows, may even go there one day for that reason alone!

Family of Man - Luxembourg
MoMA archives