Picturing an Exhibition: The Family of Man and 1950s America

The Family of Man, a photography exhibit curated by Edward Steichen, opened at the Museum of Modern Art in 1955. More people saw that exhibit than any other show of photographs before or since, and the book remains in print to this day.Eric Sandeen presents here the first in-depth study of the exhibit and its influence worldwide. He examines how the exhibit came to be assembled, the beliefs and background Edward Steichen brought to the project, and what he wanted to show about the human condition from his selection of images. He then looks at the politics and culture of the 1950s to determine why the show was so popular at the time. When the United States Information Agency toured the photographs throughout the world in five different versions for seven years, The Family of Man became a projection of American values and the culture of abundance and an American representation of universal values.The richness and historical complexity of this exhibit have been overlooked, especially in the post-Vietnam decades, as critics have been quick to dismiss it as sentimental. In the context of Steichen's text, the exhibit was an appeal to the emotions, designed to move viewers to cross the ideological barriers of the Cold War. The Family of Man was prominently displayed at the American Exhibition in Moscow in 1959.Sandeen shows the exhibit to be a great deal more than a compendium of beautiful but unchallenging photographs. He also unfolds its multilayered relationship with and reflection of the values of postwar America.