The Family of Man (nonfiction)

Softcover book catalogue of The Family of Man, designed by Leo Lionni, Piper photo by Eugene Harris. First issued for $1.00 in 1955 by Ridge Press, 4 million have sold and it is still in print.

The Family of Man was an ambitious photography exhibition curated by Edward Steichen, the director of the Museum of Modern Art's (MOMA) Department of Photography.

Description

It was first shown in 1955 from January 24 to May 8 at the New York MOMA, then toured the world for eight years, making stops in thirty-seven countries on six continents. More than 9 million people viewed the exhibit.

Jerry Mason (1914–1991) contemporaneously edited and published a complimentary book of the exhibition through Ridge Press, formed for the purpose in 1955 in partnership with Fred Sammis.

The book was designed by Leo Lionni (May 5, 1910 – October 11, 1999) and reproduced in a variety of formats (most popularly a soft-cover volume)[citation needed] in the 1950s, and reprinted in large format for its 40th anniversary, and in its various editions has sold more than four million copies.

All 503 images from the exhibition were reproduced with an introduction by Carl Sandburg, the 1951 recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, and Steichen’s brother-in-law.

Sandburg's prologue reads, in part:

"The first cry of a baby in Chicago, or Zamboango, in Amsterdam or Rangoon, has the same pitch and key, each saying, "I am! I have come through! I belong! I am a member of the Family. Many the babies and grownup here from photographs made in sixty-eight nations round our planet Earth. You travel and see what the camera saw. The wonder of human mind, heart wit and instinct is here. You might catch yourself saying, ‘I’m not a stranger here.’ "

According to Steichen, the exhibition represented the "culmination of his career."

The physical collection is archived and displayed at Clervaux Castle in Luxembourg (Edward Steichen's home country; he was born there in 1879 in Bivange). It was first presented there in 1994 after restoration of the prints.

In 2003 the Family of Man photographic collection was added to UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register in recognition of its historical value.

Nonfiction cross-reference

• Dorothea Lange (nonfiction)

External links

• The Family of Man @ Wikipedia