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Steichen's Family of Man Restored: New Life for a Photographic Touchstone

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In 1955, a decade into the Cold War, the Museum of Modern Art in New York opened its doors to a monumental photography exhibition, an aesthetic manifesto visualizing ideas of peace and “the essential oneness of mankind.” Edward Steichen, then director of the MoMA photography department, curated 503 photographs — from a pool of two million — by 273 artists from 68 countries with the at-once simple and grand goal of definitively “explaining man to man.”

Steichen called The Family of Man the most significant work of his career, writing later in the exhibition catalog — which has since sold millions of copies — that it was the “most ambitions and challenging project photography has ever attempted.” An immersive installation of monochrome prints glued onto wood frames upwards of 13 feet in length and often suspended from the ceiling, the exhibition was grouped by themes thought common across all cultures: birth, love, labor, joy, and others. The roster of photographers contained many names that remain in obscurity, but many more that have gone on to achieve legendary status: from Elliott Erwitt and W. Eugene Smith to Alfred Eisenstaedt and Nina Leen.

Elizabeth and James SEPHORA VIB ROUGE Event - Client Images
attends the Elizabeth and James SEPHORA VIB ROUGE Event on March 12, 2014 in New York City.Romain Girtgen—CNA

The exhibition has since become one of the most celebrated in photography history, touring more than 150 museums worldwide and quietly thrilling more than 10 million visitors. Now, after a three-year process of cleaning and retouching, the exhibition’s well-worn prints — scratched, many with broken corners, some peeling from their frames — have been masterfully restored to their original condition. This month, the entire exhibition opened to the public anew at its permanent home at Clervaux Castle, a 900-year-old national monument in Luxembourg, Steichen’s birthplace.

The markings of the project’s long and well-traveled life have been covered up, while the new exhibition space has been renovated to replicate the visitor experience of the original MoMA show. 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.


Eugene Reznik is a Brooklyn-based photographer and writer. Follow him on Twitter @eugene_reznik.


An installation view of The Family of Man at Clervaux Castle in Luxembourg following the renovation and restoration project, June 2013.Romain Girtgen—CNA
Peruvian flute player, 1955.Eugene Harris
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Yangtze River Essay, 1946.Dmitri Kessel—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
G.I.'S IN ENGLAND
An American soldier kissing his English girlfriend on the lawn in Hyde Park, one of the favorite haunts of US troops stationed in England, 1944.Ralph Morse—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
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A wedding in Furolac, Czechoslovakia, 1947.Robert Capa—Magnum
USA. Chicago, IL. September 19, 1946. The photographer's father delivering the photographer's son. Contact email:New York : photography@magnumphotos.comParis : magnum@magnumphotos.frLondon : magnum@magnumphotos.co.ukTokyo : tokyo@magnumphotos.co.jpContact phones:New York : +1 212 929 6000Paris: + 33 1 53 42 50 00London: + 44 20 7490 1771Tokyo: + 81 3 3219 0771Image URL:http://www.magnumphotos.com/Archive/C.aspx?VP3=ViewBox_VPage&IID=2K7O3RJ1ZOSQ&CT=Image&IT=ZoomImage01_VForm
The photographer's father delivering the photographer's son in Chicago, Il., 1946. Wayne Miller—Magnum
USA. New York City. 1953.Contact email:New York : photography@magnumphotos.comParis : magnum@magnumphotos.frLondon : magnum@magnumphotos.co.ukTokyo : tokyo@magnumphotos.co.jpContact phones:New York : +1 212 929 6000Paris: + 33 1 53 42 50 00London: + 44 20 7490 1771Tokyo: + 81 3 3219 0771Image URL:http://www.magnumphotos.com/Archive/C.aspx?VP3=ViewBox_VPage&IID=2S5RYDI9CPHB&CT=Image&IT=ZoomImage01_VForm
New York City, 1953.Elliott Erwitt—Magnum
MICHIGAN BAND
Uniformed drum major for the University of Michigan marching band practicing his high-kicking prance as he leads a line of seven admiring children who are all trying to imitate his flamboyant technique while marching across the campus lawn, 1951.Alfred Eisenstaedt—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
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Bushman children playing games on sand dunes, 1947.Nat Farbman—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
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Grandfather and grandchild in the aftermath of a hurricane, 1951.George Silk—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
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A postwar Japanese farming family posing with their tools in the field, 1948.Carl Mydans—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Four generations of farmers in this Ozark family posing in front of a wall with portraits of their fifth generation, 1946.Nina Leen—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
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Bhakra Dam tunnel interior under construction, India, 1952.Howard Sochurek—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
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Young Welsh coal miner, 1943.Frank Scherschel—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
SUDAN. Aluma Plateau. 1954. Line of Bari women. Contact email:New York : photography@magnumphotos.comParis : magnum@magnumphotos.frLondon : magnum@magnumphotos.co.ukTokyo : tokyo@magnumphotos.co.jpContact phones:New York : +1 212 929 6000Paris: + 33 1 53 42 50 00London: + 44 20 7490 1771Tokyo: + 81 3 3219 0771Image URL:http://www.magnumphotos.com/Archive/C.aspx?VP3=ViewBox_VPage&IID=2S5RYDZ6QJBZ&CT=Image&IT=ZoomImage01_VForm
Line of Bari women, Aluma Plateau, Sudan, 1954.George Rodger—Magnum
UKRAINE. August, 1947. Families of a collective farm seated for a meal.Contact email:New York : photography@magnumphotos.comParis : magnum@magnumphotos.frLondon : magnum@magnumphotos.co.ukTokyo : tokyo@magnumphotos.co.jpContact phones:New York : +1 212 929 6000Paris: + 33 1 53 42 50 00London: + 44 20 7490 1771Tokyo: + 81 3 3219 0771Image URL:http://www.magnumphotos.com/Archive/C.aspx?VP3=ViewBox_VPage&IID=2S5RYDW1W3YI&CT=Image&IT=ZoomImage01_VForm
Families of a collective farm seated for a meal in Ukraine, 1947.Robert Capa—International Center of Photography/Magnum
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Auditorium of the Paris Opera House, 1949.Walter Sanders—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
INDIA. Kashmir. Srinagar. 1948. Muslim women on the slopes of Hari Parbal Hill, praying toward the sun rising behind the Himalayas. Contact email:New York : photography@magnumphotos.comParis : magnum@magnumphotos.frLondon : magnum@magnumphotos.co.ukTokyo : tokyo@magnumphotos.co.jpContact phones:New York : +1 212 929 6000Paris: + 33 1 53 42 50 00London: + 44 20 7490 1771Tokyo: + 81 3 3219 0771Image URL:http://www.magnumphotos.com/Archive/C.aspx?VP3=ViewBox_VPage&IID=2S5RYDI03U5H&CT=Image&IT=ZoomImage01_VForm
Muslim women on the slopes of Hari Parbal Hill, praying toward the sun rising behind the Himalayas in Srinagar, Kashmir, 1948.Henri Cartier-Bresson—Magnum
USED LIFE 10/1999
Children of photographer W. Eugene Smith walking hand-in-hand in the woods behind his home in this photograph entitled "The Walk to Paradise Garden," 1946.W. Eugene Smith—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images

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