UID:
almahu_9949386569902882
Format:
1 online resource (318 pages) :
,
illustrations
ISBN:
9781003103936
,
1003103936
,
9781000211696
,
100021169X
,
9781000213355
,
1000213358
,
9781000212464
,
1000212467
Content:
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.
Note:
"First published 2018 by I.B. Tauris"--Title page verso
,
1. Reassessing Roland Barthes's Myth of The Family of Man / Gerd Hurm -- 2. The Family of Man -- All of Us' (1958) and ̀Photography' (1960) / Max Horkheimer -- 3. Max Horkheimer and The Family of Man / Martin Jay -- 4. The Camera Will Not Miss Anything' (1955): The Family of Man at the Stadtische Galerie / Wolfgang Koeppen -- 5. Two Letters to Edward Steichen / August Sander -- 6. The Family of Man in Munich: Visitors' Reactions / Shamoon Zamir -- 7. The Family of Man: Looking at the Photographs Now and Remembering a Visit in the 1950s / Werner Sollors -- 8. Picture and Image: Another Look at The Family of Man / Winfried Fluck -- 9. Structures of Rhyme, Forms of Participation: The Family of Man as Exhibition / Shamoon Zamir -- 10. A Humanism of Relation: Aesthetics and Philosophy of Place in The Family of Man / Kerstin Schmidt -- 11. Re-exhibiting The Family of Man: Luxembourg 2013 / Anke Reitz -- 12. Et in Arcadia Ego: The Family of Man as Cold War Pastoral / Miles Orvell -- 13. The Family of Man and Post-war Debates about American Art / Ulrike Gehring -- 14. Carl Sandburg's Journey to The Family of Man / Eric J. Sandeen -- 15. Commentaries on Photographs: The Family of Man (1962) / Witold Wirpsza.
Language:
English
Keywords:
Electronic books.
;
Electronic books.
;
Exhibition catalogs
;
History
DOI:
10.4324/9781003103936
URL:
https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9781003103936
