The Family Of Man
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Book Summary Information
Editor: Edward SteichenContributor: Carl Sandburg
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2002-07-02
ISBN: 0870703412
Number of pages: 192
Publisher: The Museum of Modern Art, New York
Book Reviews of The Family Of Man
Book Review: The Family of Man: still electrifies after 55 years...
Summary: 5 Stars
There are many photo books that have been published over the years. Some are personal reflections, others are beautiful in an artistic sense, and some tell a story. Then there are a very few that stand out and weather the test of time, and enduring monument to what we refer to as the human condition.
Received a copy of Edward Steichen's book The Family Of Man as a present from a close friend who knew what it meant personally to me. Had mentioned it a number of times as being the one photo book that had moved me the most over the years, and this friend heard my words, and then responded by giving it to me as a birthday present.
It wasn't my first copy of this book.
I first encountered "The Family of Man" in my youth during a visit to the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City, and remembered being electrified by the huge black & white photos of the faces in the exhibit. Steichen had started preparing this exhibition in the early '50s, appealing to professional and amateur photographers around the world in an attempt to explain vision of humankind through the universal language of photography. Millions of images from around the world were submitted.
Steichen and his assistant, Wayne Miller, selected over 500 photographs from more than 270 photographers: Henri Cartier-Bresson, Dorothea Lange, Robert Capa, Anna Riwkin-Brick, Robert Doisneau, and many more. The exhibition made its debut as "The Family of Man" in 1955 at MoMA, and was divided into various themes celebrating mankind at work, in love, as families, in war and peace, and more. The exhibition was turned into a book, this one here, and poet Carl Sandburg (Steichen's brother-in-law) wrote the introduction.
The exhibit later traveled in different versions to over 35 countries, and more than nine million people viewed it. It was presented to Luxembourg, Steichen's birthplace, and is on permanent display in Clervaux. The Family of Man photographic collection was added to UNESCO's Memory of the World Register in 2003 in recognition of its immense historical value.
Got my first copy of this book in the '70s while in college, after the Vietnam Era and many of us were looking at mankind in general, and looking for hope. Came across this it in a bookstore while looking for something to express this hope, and remembering the exhibition from my youth, it struck a chord within. I showed it to friend, another student with similar interests, and upon this book we created a presentation that became an award-winner, one that we shared with many as part of a group multimedia presentation.
Somewhere in the midst of moves, my copy of the book was lost, and missed. Tried many times to describe it to friends and associates, but only a few had even heard of it as the years progressed. Found a very tattered and much used copy of it at a yard sale earlier this decade, but many of the pages were missing, and according to the woman selling it, her father had owned it and had framed many of the images.
But now I have it again, all due to my friend. And on the flyleaf this friend wrote some words to me that came from F. Scott Fitzgerald's greatest work, "The Great Gatsby." That passage came from the end of the book, referring to Jay Gatsby's sacred green light, and in part reads: "So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past."
Ceaselessly into the past... perhaps because the future is far too bleak, too depressing to see in your mind's eye. Hope may seem to be lost, but because of what we are, the family of man, we will still keep at it... and who knows, maybe someday we can accomplish our dreams.
To me, that's the ongoing meaning of this book.
Summary of The Family Of Man
Hailed as the most successful exhibition of photography ever assembled, The Family of Man opened at The Museum of Modern Art, New York in January 1955. This book, the permanent embodiment of Edward Steichen's monumental exhibition, reproduces all of the 503 images that Steichen described as "a mirror of the essential oneness of mankind throughout the world. Photographs made in all parts of the world, of the gamut of life from birth to death." A classic and inspiring work, The Family of Man has been in print for more than forty years. The New York Times once wrote that it "symbolizes the universality of human emotions." First produced by a magazine publisher and sold by the hundreds of thousands on newsstands and in airport shops, The Family of Man has been in more recent years published by the Museum. It has been continuously in print since 1955; the present Thirtieth Anniversary Edition was prepared from original photographs with all new duotone plates in 1986.Artists, A-Z Books
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