In 1947, Edward Steichen became Director of the Department of Photography at the Museum of Modern Art. The most important exhibition that he directed was "The Family of Man", which opened in 1955. The project began in 1952 and the call for entries resulted in a staggering 10,000 images for Steichen and his staff to cull down to 503 photographs from 68 countries. The Family of Man was seen world-wide as a traveling exhibition.
This is the book created to accompany the exhibition. It begins with an introduction written by Carl Sandburg. The photographs in the book follow a progression through different stages and aspects of the human experience: courtship, marriage, pregnancy, birth, childhood, work, family, celebration, war, old age, death. The book is arranged to show people from all cultures experiencing the same moments to show that we are all more the same than we are different.
My copy of this book is an original printing and it is in exceedingly poor condition. The binding is broken and the pages are falling out. The book seems to be still in print though. at least, you can still buy new copies for normal book prices. There is even a 60th anniversary condition. It's an important document of the human experience and and even an excellent coffee table book. I highly recommend it for anyone, not just photographers.
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