About this title: This now classic book is the permanent embodiment of Edward Steichen's masterpiece - a creation that has been hailed as the most successful and inspiring exhibition of photography ever assembled. The Family of Man opened at The Museum of Modern Art, New York, in January 1955 and thereafter traveled throughout the United States and much of the ...
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Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Description: Good. No dust jacket as issued. Pages immaculate. Binding tight. Cover has two slight creases. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 192 p. Audience: General/trade. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Published for the Museum of Modern Art, [New York]
Date Published: 1955
Description: Good in poor dust jacket. Edgewear and the dust jacket has heavy shelf wear/tear. 192 p. (chiefly illus. ) Includes Illustrations. The greatest photographic exhibition of all time-503 pictures from 68 countries-created by Edward Steichen for The Musuem of Modern Art. Prologue by Carl Sandburg. read more
Description: Satisfaction Guaranteed. Shipped quickly. 2002. Paperback. Used, very good. Very good overall with light to moderate wear. No dust jacket. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Date Published: 1955
Description: Fair. No Jacket. 4to-over 9¾"-12" tall. D1-Book is slightly worn, slightly cocked, has discoloration (browning, light stains, fadings), light scratches on the front and right page edges, chippings on the back and front right edge, tear on the left side of the second page near the spine, and normal shelf wear. "The first cry of a newborn baby in Chicago or Zamboango, in Amsterdam or Rangoo, has the same pitch and key, each saying, 'I am! I have come through! I belong! I am a member of the Family ... read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Museum of Modern Art, New York
Date Published: 1955
Description: Book: Good. 4to. 207 pp. 8 1/2 x 11 1/4. Blue boards with qtr black cloth, stamped in silver on front and spine. Light wear at corners. No dj. read more
Binding: Trade pb
Publisher: Museum of Modern Art, NY
Date Published: 1955
Description: Good. No dust jacket. Unknown printing. Illustrated by. illus.; Prologue by Carl Sandburg: 503 pictures from 68 countries. b & w photos read more
Description: Good. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: NY, Museum of Modern Art, 1955.
Description: 4to., 193pp., soft cover. Illustrated with 503 b&w photos from 68 countries. Prologue by Carl Sandburg. Moderate wear to covers and spine, sticker ghost on front cover, pp. 128-192 dampstained at lower corner, else fine. read more
Binding: Trade Paperback
Publisher: Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York, U.S.A.
Date Published: 1955
Description: Good in Pictorial Cover jacket. Paperback. 4to-over 9¾"-12" tall. Clean and tight. Modest shelfwear, primarily on edges; bumped corners. 5-3 photos from 68 countries-prologue by Carl Sandburg. read more
Edition: 1st
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Museum Of Modern Art, New York
Date Published: 1955
Description: Oversize hardcover in paper wrap; cover slightly rubbed, spine discolored from exposure; slight curve in boards; pages. Yellowing from age; otherwise, clean, sound; VG; photographic exhibition created by Steichen. read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Maco Magazine, New York
Date Published: 1955
Description: Fair. 4to-over 9¾"-12" tall. The Greatest photographic exhibition of all time, 503 pictures fom 68 countries. Foreword by Carl Sandburg. BW photos. Front cover and title page with large chip along lower edge, with crease bends. Page edge discolored. pg 192. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: NY Museum Of Modern Art C 1955
Description: 192pp. 503 B&W photos. 4to. Black cloth spine (no lettering on spine), white boards with gold design and lettering. ART. "The greatest photographic exhibition of all time-503 pictures from 68 countries-created by Edward Steichen for The Museum of Modern Art. Prologue by Carl Sandburg. ". No DW. All pages are a little wavy. White boards are clean & bright. VG-. read more
Edition: Unknown Edition
Binding: Oversized Hardcover
Publisher: Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
Date Published: 1955
Description: Good- in Good- jacket. Mylared A nice reading copy. Pages are clean but yellowing at the edges. Binding is a bit loose but the pages are secure. Book and jacket show some shelfwear. Jacket has been mylared for protection. Front flap has been price-clipped. Jacket is yellowed and scuffed at the edges and corners. Black and white photos throughout. Prologue by Carl Sandburg. 503 pictures from 68 countries. This is an oversized book and may require extra postage. read more
"Recognized by many as the greatest photography collection ever assembled, The Family of Man contains 503 photographs, selected under the direction of master photographer Edward Steichen. Selections were made from thousands of pictures submitted from around the world - by some of the Twentieth Century's most famous photographers and by photographers otherwise completely unknown.
The power of these chosen images is unforgettable; studying the entire collection is deeply affecting.
Arranged in order to illustrate stages of human life, it presents subtle and profound moments of love, birth, childhood, puberty, education, war and peace, marriage, fun and entertainment, recreation and labor, poverty and riches, pleasure and pain, conflict and violence, faith and religion, the arts, societies and cultures, and death. A rich and moving visual journey touching upon human lives in many lands, the original collection was displayed at the World's Fair in NYC, and later for decades at the Museum of Modern Art. The entire collection as reproduced in this beautiful book is a treasure for a lifetime and a meaningful gift for someone you love."
Yes, Luxembourg. If you don't like that, I'll have to read something by Hugo Gernsback, another Luxembourgian-turned-American and the person for whom the Hugo Award in science fiction is named. Did you know that Luxembourg is where the Family of Man collection is now housed? Or that Carl Sandburg, who wrote the Prologue to the book, was Steichen's brother-in-law? Or that Leo Lionni, whom you think of as "The guy who did children's books about mice with construction paper illustrations," was the Art Director for this book? I thought not. Your knowledge of Luxembourg is woefully inadequate. You do remember that The Family of Man was one of the books on your hip great aunt's coffee table in the 1960's, though, right?
The 1955 edition features over 500 photos, most of people, from 68 countries, making it an excellent fit for my Books of the World challenge. The black and white photos of a variety of human activities are interspersed with quotations from many cultures. A number of the cultures and countries depicted no longer exist in the form represented here. The photos are grouped thematically and associatively, the choice of photos highlighting the commonality of human emotion and experience. For example, the two-page spread of pages 58-59 shows a 12-person, multi-generational family group (I presume) from Bechuanaland, minimally garbed and looking into the camera. On the facing page, an agricultural family of 11 from "U.S.A." is similarly grouped and looking straight into the camera. Pages 94-95 present a circle of 18 photos of groups dancing in circles. There is also social commentary. A page of scientists faces a boy surrounded by the wreckage of buildings in Germany.
If you're not familiar with this collection, culled from more than two million submitted photos, go find it and take a look. You'll recognize Arbus, Eisenstadt, Cartier-Bresson, Adams, Page, Doisneau, Lange and many Life photographers. You'll recognize some subjects (like Einstein and Alice Liddell) and photos (such as Lang's on the bottom of page 151). Others are simply emblematic of human experience, but far from generic.
Yes, I'd like to see gay people and fewer people from the U.S. Nonetheless, it's a startlingly broad collection for 1955, and even more moving than when I first looked it about 40 years ago."
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