A unique project for humanity

Seventy years ago, on 24 January 1955, the global exhibition “The Family of Man” opened at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York. Edward Steichen and his team were responsible for the exhibition, gathering photographs from around the world and selecting them for the exhibition. To this day, “The Family of Man“ is considered by many to be the greatest photographic project of all time, painting a unique portrait of humanity and, in 37 themes, depicting the great moments of human life. It shows how differently people around the world live their lives together, but emphasises precisely the commonality and the equal value of all people, as enshrined in the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights since 1948¹ – a foundation for living together in peace.

‘I did it! I belong!’

It starts with the beginning of life: “The first cry of a new-born child in Chicago or Zamboango, in Amsterdam or Rangoon, has the same message: ʻIt’s me! I’ve made it! I belong! I am a member of the family!’” This is what the poet and writer Carl Sandburg² wrote in the introductory words to the catalogue documenting the exhibition “The Family of Man.” The exhibition sees itself as a snapshot of its time after two terrible world wars, and it attempts to answer the questions which were facing humanity then (and still are today). In doing so, it creates a perspective of a peaceful and humane world, sustained by a spirit of equal and democratic coexistence. This is as relevant today as it was before, in the face of a world beset by political tensions and claims to power.

A deep aversion to war

The Luxembourg-American photographer and painter Edward Steichen (1879–1973) was the conceptual originator of “The Family of Man.” The exhibition is closely linked to his personal life (see box).
  When he volunteered for service in the U.S. Army in 1917, his goal was to succeed Matthew Brady, the legendary war correspondent during the American Civil War. As a lieutenant in the photography division of the U.S. Army Signal Corps, he was assigned the division for aerial reconnaissance photography supervision in France. Toward the end of the war, he realised that his photographs had been intended to be used for targeted destruction in wartime – a clarifying and ground-breaking experience. He now hoped that artists would join forces and take a united stand against the mass murder on the battlefields of the First World War. The experiences and horrific images of the war deeply affected him, and after the war’s end, he suffered severe depression. Even though he later pursued a wide range of artistic activities, social issues and his pacifist concerns remained important to him.

What had I done wrong?

After World War II, in 1947, Steichen was appointed director of the photography department at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, a position he held until 1962. He put his career as a photographer on hold to promote other artists, organising and curating 44 exhibitions during those fifteen years. Thanks to his openness, versatility, and willingness to experiment, he was able to provide a platform for a wide variety of artists. In 1951, in the midst of the Cold War, he opened the exhibition “Korea – The Impact of War”, in which he again sought to depict the horrors of war.
  This became a turning point in Steichen’s work. Contrary to his intention, the images of war did not evoke the disgust and deep aversion to war which he himself had developed as a lasting and painful impression during the two world wars. This experience shook Steichen deeply and inspired him with the idea for the exhibition “The Family of Man”:
  “Although I had portrayed the war in all its severity in three exhibitions, I had failed to fulfil my mission. I had not succeeded in awakening people and moving them to an open and collective condemnation of war. This failure prompted me to re-examine my concept. What had I done wrong? I had taken a negative position. What people needed was something positive. I had to show them how glorious life is, how wonderful people are, and—above all—how equal they are in all parts of the world. […] Family of Man, that was the theme for my exhibition, the one I had been looking for.”³ He decided to put his idea for the exhibition “The Family of Man” into action, and did not shy away from the magnitude of the task.

Tensions looming again

He used all his photojournalism resources and the networks he had built up through his career to realise his project. This was at a time when the world was recovering from World War II, one of the greatest tragedies in its history. After the horrors of the events, people doubted certainties and lived with an inner disorientation. The United States and the Soviet Union (USSR) were already emerging as new superpowers, supported by their respective allies. Tensions between them had become increasingly apparent since 1947. Conscious of the military impact, they began a race for nuclear deterrence and each sought to develop the most powerful nuclear weapon. The threat of a new conflict, even more violent and destructive than anything humanity had ever yet experienced, threatened the entire world. It skidded down into the Cold War. It was in this contemporary historical context that Edward Steichen’s idea for “The Family of Man” took shape.

Regardless of their race,
their faith and their skin colour

For Steichen, “The Family of Man” was the culmination of his career. Here, his many years of professional experience and his human concerns were closely intertwined with his own story. Even as a young boy, he had an experience with his mother that left its mark on his emotional life. “I was probably 10 years old when I came home from school one day, turned around at the shop door, and shouted out into the street: ʻDirty little Jew!’ My mother called me to the counter where she was serving and asked me what I had shouted. Full of childlike innocence, I repeated my words. My mother asked her customers to excuse her, closed the shop, and took me to our apartment. Then she sat down next to me and began a long, serious conversation in which she explained to me that all people are equal, regardless of their race, creed, and colour, and that bigotry and intolerance are evil.”⁴ Steichen later considered this episode to be a decisive moment in his life.

The beauty of things
that fill our lives

Starting in 1951, and supported by photographers Wayne Miller, Dorothea Lange, and other assistants, he began searching for counter-images to war, images of everyday human life. These were intended to capture the great moments and the beauty of life. Travelling through the US and Europe, they collected images for the planned exhibition. They placed advertisements appealing for donations and searched the archives of agencies such as Magnum Photos and Time & Life. Four years of intensive work followed. Finally, they faced the seemingly impossible task of selecting from over four million photographs those that would be used to create the exhibition. In the end, they brought together 503 images by 273 professional and amateur photographers from 68 countries. These depict the moments that all people encounter in their lives: love, birth, work, family, education, childhood, war, peace … Or as Edward Steichen put it: “The Family of Man was conceived as a mirror of universal elements and emotions in the context of everyday life—as a mirror of the fundamental unity of humanity.”⁵ The photographs movingly reveal how people approach one another, how they rejoice in each other and with each other, and prove that life is worth living, even if the images are sometimes marked by sadness or violence.
  In 1955, the time had come, the exhibition was finally ready. For ten years, until 1965, it was presented at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. It then travelled around the world and was shown in many countries, including India, Russia, France, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Mexico, Germany, Japan, Australia, and others. This required ten nearly identical copies of “The Family of Man.” Each of them, packed in 23 crates, weighed one and a half tons. The exhibition took about six days to set up. It was presented in almost 160 museums and attracted more than 10 million visitors.

An exhibition for everyone

When Edward Steichen travelled to Europe in 1952 to collect photographs for his planned exhibition, he suggested to his home country of Luxembourg that the planned world tour of “The Family of Man” be launched from there. But the government refused. Consistent with the widely held perspective at the time, it viewed photography not as art, but as a commercial craft. It was not until about ten years later that Steichen’s ideas met with a more positive response. In 1964, at Edward Steichen’s request, the American government donated the travelling exhibition “The Family of Man” to the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. Exhibitions followed in France and Japan. In Hiroshima alone, over three thousand visitors flocked to the exhibition every day – a figure that speaks for itself. Since June 1964, it has had its permanent home in Clervaux Castle, where it can now be visited.

Criticism and an important rethink

The exhibition sparked debate and rejection – opinion-formingly fuelled by the postmodern philosopher Roland Barthes. It was accused of failing to interpret history as changeable in a Marxist-dialectical sense, and the humanism underlying the exhibition was criticised as sentimental and reactionary. Meanwhile, these voices have rightly fallen silent.⁶ Today, a rethink is underway that has led to a nuanced view of this complex and, to many, heartening exhibition. To this day, it continues to deeply resonate with its visitors through its timelessly valid message of humanity.

Declared a Memory of the
World by UNESCO in 2003

The last image in the exhibition – a photograph of a hydrogen bomb drop – is accompanied by a cautionary quote by Bertrand Russell: “The best experts agree that a war involving hydrogen bombs would most likely mean the end of humanity... and we would experience universal death—sudden for a fortunate minority, but a slow agony of disease and decay for the majority …”⁷
  Only warmongers and minds confused by war propaganda and the lust for power could wish for such a thing! •

¹ General Assembly Resolution 217 A (III) of 10 December 1948, Universal Declaration of Human Rights; https://www.un.org/en/development/desa/population/migration/generalassembly/docs/globalcompact/A_RES_217(III).pdf
² Carl Sandburg (born 6 January 1878 in Galesburg, Illinois; died 22 July 1967 in Flat Rock, North Carolina) was the child of Swedish immigrants. He was married to Lilian Steichen, the younger sister of Edward Steichen. He collaborated with Steichen on the text for the photo exhibition and the accompanying book, The Family of Man (1955). Sandburg’s first book, Chicago Poems, was published in 1916, and his last collection of poems, Honey and Salt, was published in 1963, when he was 85 years old.
³ Hurm, Gerd. Edward Steichen. Luxemburg. Editions Saint-Paul 2019, p. 131
⁴ Op. cit. p. 29
⁵ Steichen, Edward. https://www.thefamilyofman.education/fr/contexte-historique/the-family-of-man-un-livre-de-lhumanite
⁶ It was a point of criticism that the exhibition was presented with the support of the United States Information Agency (USIA), a US government organisation founded in the midst of the Cold War to convey a positive image of the United States abroad (cf. Hurm, pp. 144–145).
⁷ Steichen, Edward. The Family of Man. New York: Museum of Modern Art 1955, p. 179

Further sources:
Steichen, Edward. The Family of Man. New York: Museum of Modern Art 1955 (still available)
Website for “The Family of Man”: https://steichencollections-cna.lu/deu/collections/1_the-family-of-man