Hurm Gerd - The Family of Man revisited. Photography in a global age

Gerd Hurm is Professor of American Literature and Director of the Center for American Studies at the University of Trier, Germany. He has published widely in the fields of urban, media, and gender studies, with a particular focus on American political rhetoric, realist and modernist discourses, and on post-World War II American arts and culture. He is currently researching the photography, aesthetics and curatorial politics of Edward Steichen.

Anke Reitz is a photography curator at the Centre national de laudiovisuel (CNA) in Luxembourg and is in charge of the CNAs Steichen Collections The Family of Man and The Bitter Years . She has written on art history and visual communication and lately her focus has been on audiovisual arts, photographic history and conservation, as well as art mediation.

Shamoon Zamir is Associate Professor of Literature and Visual Studies and Director of Akkasah: Center for Photography at New York University Abu Dhabi. He works on American literature, photography and intellectual history. He is the author of The Gift of the Face: Portraiture and Time in Edward S. Curtiss The North American Indian (2014). He is also co-editor of The Photobook (I.B.Tauris, 2012).

This anthology of contemporary essays and historical sources is an important contribution to the growing field of exhibition history. Through critical reevaluation of The Family of Man and analyses of its international reception, the book breaks new ground with varied accounts of the shows place in postwar culture and detailed discussion of its curatorial construction and modes of presentation.

Bruce Altshuler , Director, Program in Museum Studies, New York University

Of exhibitions of photography, The Family of Man is the one most deserving of renewed critical reflection and assessment. This volume offers exactly that, providing new perspectives and information in an effort to make us think again about what we imagined we already knew. Anyone interested in photographys history and creative possibilities will want to read it.

Geoffrey Batchen , Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand

Rolf Petersen, installation view of The Family of Man at the Museum of Modern Art, New York City, 1955.

Published in 2018 by

I.B.Tauris & Co. Ltd

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Copyright 2018 Centre national de laudiovisuel (CNA)

The rights of Gerd Hurm, Anke Reitz and Shamoon Zamir to be identified as the editors of this work has been asserted by the editors in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or any part thereof, may not be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Every attempt has been made to gain permission for the use of the images in this book. Any omissions will be rectified in future editions.

References to websites were correct at the time of writing.

HB ISBN: 978 1 78453 966 5

PB ISBN: 978 1 78453 967 2

eISBN: 978 1 78672 297 3

ePDF: 978 1 78673 297 2

A full CIP record for this book is available from the British Library

A full CIP record is available from the Library of Congress

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Dedicated to

Jean Back

Shamoon Zamir and Gerd Hurm

Gerd Hurm

Max Horkheimer

Martin Jay

Wolfgang Koeppen

August Sander

Shamoon Zamir

Werner Sollors

Winfried Fluck

Shamoon Zamir

Kerstin Schmidt

Anke Reitz

Miles Orvell

Ulrike Gehring

Eric J. Sandeen

Witold Wirpsza

Rolf Petersen, installation view of The Family of Man at the Museum of Modern Art, New York City, 1955. Digital image. (2017)
The Museum of Modern Art/Scala Florence.

The Family of Man at the Museum of Modern Art, New York City. Ezra Stoller/Esto.

The Family of Man at the Museum of Modern Art, New York City. Ezra Stoller/Esto.

Bertolt Brecht visiting The Family of Man at Hochschule fr bildende Knste, Berlin, 1955. Prof. Ludwig Thrmer. Scan provided by Universitt der Knste, Universittsarchiv.

Back cover: Bertolt Brecht, Kriegsfibel (1955). Eulenspiegel Verlag, Berlin.

Alfred Eisenstaedt, Prague, Czech Republic, 1947. Time & Life Collection Getty Images.

The Family of Man installation at Clervaux Castle. Theme Family of Man: central theme pictures. CNA/Romain Girtgen, 2013.

Floor plan and synopsis of The Family of Man , Museum of Modern Art, New York City, 1955. Annotated diagram published in Popular Photography , May 1955.

The Family of Man installation at Clervaux Castle. Theme Justice: (from left to right) Herman Kreider, John Florea and Dmitri Kessel. CNA/Romain Girtgen, 2016.

Pages 1845 extracted from The Family of Man: 60th Anniversary Edition , edited by Edward Steichen, preface by Carl Sandburg, the Museum of Modern Art, New York City, 2015. Reproduced with permission from the Museum of Modern Art, New York City, 2017.

Pages 1789 extracted from The Family of Man: 60th Anniversary Edition , edited by Edward Steichen, preface by Carl Sandburg, the Museum of Modern Art, New York City, 2015. Reproduced with permission from the Museum of Modern Art, New York City, 2017.

The Family of Man installation at Clervaux Castle. Theme Human Relations: Henri Leighton. CNA/Romain Girtgen, 2016.

Detail from Picasso-Braque exhibition at 291 (1915), photographed by Alfred Stieglitz. The Estate of Alfred Stieglitz/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. File provided by the National Media Museum/Science & Society Picture Library.

Max Horkheimers letter to Peter-Kristian Ledig, the Chairman of the Kuratorium Kulturelles Frankfurt e.V., 5 October 1958. Image source: Institut fr Stadtgeschichte, Frankfurt am Main. Goethe-Universitt Frankfurt am Main, Universittsbibliothek Johann Christian Senckenberg.

The Family of Man at the Stdtische Lenbach-Galerie, Munich, Germany, 19 November18 December 1955. National Archives, Washington, DC, Ref. 306-FM-8-26.

The Family of Man at the Stdtische Lenbach-Galerie, Munich, Germany, 19 November18 December 1955. National Archives, Washington, DC, Ref. 306-FM-8-66.

Eugene Harris, Popular Photography (no additional copyright information was available for this image at the time of publication).

. Represented picture: Kosti Ruohomaa Black Star.

The Family of Man installation at Clervaux Castle. Theme Relationships: Andreas Feininger. CNA/Romain Girtgen, 2016.

The Family of Man installation at Clervaux Castle. Theme Learning, thinking and teaching: (from left to right) Nat Farbman, J. De Pietro, (John Philips), Ruth Orkin and Roman Vishniac. CNA/Romain Girtgen, 2016.

The Family of Man installation at Clervaux Castle. Theme UN: (from right to left) Emmy Andriesse, Dmitri Kessel, John Philips, Alma Lavenson, Alfred Eisenstaedt, August Sander and Vito Fiorenza. CNA/Romain Girtgen, 2016.

The Family of Man installation at Clervaux Castle. Theme Drinking: Leonti Planskoy. CNA/Romain Girtgen, 2016.

The Family of Man installation at Clervaux Castle. Theme Playing: (centre) Garry Winogrand. CNA/Romain Girtgen, 2016.

Russell Lee, Department of the Interior. Solid Fuels Administration for War 19 April 194330 June 1947. National Archives, Washington, DC, Ref. 245 245-MS-54L.