The family of man lives on

Almost 50 years after it became public, The Family of Man is still grabbing attention. It was probably the most successful exhibit ever, and still draws headlines more than a half century after it was first shown. The latest round of publicity stems from a facelift given to the gallery where the images are permanently housed in Luxembourg.

The Family of man was the biggest project of Edward Steichen, a photographer, curator, critic and writer. Steichen called it the most ambitious project ever undertaken. “The exhibition … demonstrates that the art of photography is a dynamic process of giving form to ideas and of explaining man to man,” he wrote in the introduction to the book that followed the exhibit.

The Family of Man inclucded 503 photographs from 273 artists. The images are grouped around themes that united all humankind: children, birth, love, death, work, and play. It showed initially at the Museum of Modern Art in 1955 and toured through 37 countries for eight years after that. The exhibit was one of the most succesful ever, in part because it came in the decade that followed the atrocities of World War II. The world probably needed something to remind it of its own humanity and the family of man fulfilled that need.

In July 2013, Eugene Reznik, a writer, photographer and critic for Time magazine, said the exhibit was less relevant today than it once was. “The collection itself, meanwhile, feels like a relic — significant, and memorable, but a relic nonetheless — of the past. The all-encompassing inclusiveness of its original intent, after all, grows less authoritative with each passing day, as more and more cameras come into the hands of more and more underrepresented members of the increasingly diverse human family.”

I’m not sure I agree. I don’t know that the human family is increasingly diverse. I think it’s always been diverse; we are simply seeing more of a diverse group because of the proliferation of media. Secondly, I don’t know that the proliferation of cameras makes the images in Steichen’s exhibit any less striking. I would argue that with the ubiquity of images today means that the few that do stand out are more memorable than ever.

To cite one example, look at the image of a uniformed drum major taken by taken by Alfred Eisenstaedt on the University of Michigan campus. The central character in the photo high-steps through a drill followed by a line of children who mimic his unique style in their own way. It’s a photo I first saw years ago but have never forgotten. I’m reminded of the sheer joy of life and the happiness in simple ways when I view this photo. It’s an image that has stood the test of time and is more striking in an era of ubiquitous photos instantaneously transmitted.

Other images dramatize the human condition in similar fashion. It is a book of its time, but the impact of its images still lives on.