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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

Eric J. Sandeen
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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.

Type
General Essays
Information
Prospects , Volume 11 , October 1986 , pp. 367 - 391
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1986

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References

NOTES

1. White, Minor, “Museum of Modern Art Exhibition,” Aperture, 9, No. 1 (1961), p. 41.Google Scholar

2. Rosskam, Edwin, “Family of Steichen,” Art News, 54 (03, 1955), 34–37.Google Scholar

3. See, for example, Adams, Phoebe, “Through a Lens Darkly,” The Atlantic, 195 (04, 1955), 69–72.Google Scholar

4. Sontag, Susan's On Photography (New York City: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1973)Google Scholar elaborates this point of view most extensively. When the exhibition is mentioned in surveys of photography, it is most often relegated to a paragraph which echoes her analysis.

5. Sekula, Allan, “The Traffic in Photographs,” Art Journal, 41 (Spring, 1981), p. 21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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.

8. News Release, “Museum of Modern Art Plans International Photography Exhibition,” 01 31, 1954.Google Scholar Steichen Archives, Museum of Modern Art.

9. Sandburg, Carl, Complete Poems (New York City: Harcourt, Brace, and World, 1950), pp. 470–471.Google Scholar

10. Boorstin, Daniel, The Image, or What Happened to the American Dream (New York City: Atheneum, 1962).Google Scholar See especially Chapter 1, “From News Gathering to News Making: A Flood of Pseudo-Events.”

11. For example, the May 1955 Atlantic contained a long letter to the editor which rebutted Phoebe Adams's review, cited above.

12. Sontag, , pp. 22–23.Google Scholar

13. Berkhofer, Robert, “Clio and the Culture Concept: Some Impressions of a Changing Relationship in American Historiography,” Social Science Quarterly, 55 (09, 1972), p. 308.Google Scholar

14. Ibid., pp. 310–311.

15. Hofstadter, Richard, “The Pseudo-Conservative Revolt,” in Bell, Daniel, The Radical Right (Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1963 [expanded ed.]), p. 77.Google Scholar

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18. Ibid., p. 94.

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21. Ibid., p. 37.

22. Ibid., p. 295.

23. Ibid., p. 41.

24. Ibid., p. 36.

25. Ibid., p. 282.

26. Ibid., p. 295.

27. Sekula, , p. 20.Google Scholar

28. Here is the truest use of the exhibition as a collection of photographs chronicling family history. For the different senses of history which family photographs contain, see Lesy, Michael, Time Frames: The Meaning of Family Pictures (New York City: Pantheon Books, 1980).Google Scholar

29. Life, 02 14, 1955.Google Scholar

30. The Family of Man (New York City: Museum of Modern Art, 1955), p. 82.Google Scholar

31. Ibid., p. 179.

32. Ibid., p. 180.

33. Steichen, Edward, “The Family of Man,” Picturescope, 3, No. 2 (07, 1955), p. 7.Google Scholar

34. Sontag, , pp. 21–24.Google Scholar

35. Barthes, 's review of The Family of Man appears in Mythologies, trans. Lavers, Annette (New York City: Hill and Wang, 1972).Google Scholar

36. Whelan, Richard, Double Take: A Comparative Look at Photographs (New York City: Clarkson N. Potter, 1981), p. 34.Google Scholar

37. Ibid., p. 17.

38. Geertz, Clifford, “Thick Description: Toward an Interpretive Theory of Culture,” in The Interpretation of Cultures (New York City: Basic Books, 1973).Google Scholar

39. Berkhofer, , p. 310.Google Scholar

40. Benjamin's argument is summarized in Phillips, Christopher, “The Judgment Seat of Photography,” 10, 22 (Fall, 1982).Google Scholar

41. Ibid., p. 35.

42. Ibid., pp. 43–44.

43. Ibid., p. 48.

44. Szarkowski, John, Introduction to Mirrors and Windows: American Photography since 1960 (New York City: Museum of Modern Art, 1978), p. 17.Google Scholar

45. For a partial list of the attendance figures, plus the international touring schedule, see McCray, Porter (Director of Circulating Exhibitions) to Miller, Wayne, 01 18, 1957.Google Scholar Private collection of Wayne Miller.

46. Sekula, , p. 20.Google Scholar

47. Steichen, Edward, A Life in Photography (New York City, 1963), Section 13.Google Scholar

48. Peters, Marsha and Mergen, Bernard, “‘Doing the Rest’: The Use of Photographs in American Studies,” American Quarterly, 29 (Bibliography, 1977), p. 289.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

49. Schlereth, Thomas, Artifacts and the American Past (Nashville: American Association of State and Local History, 1980), p. 44.Google Scholar