2012/01/01 by Fred Turner · 1 citation
Arts and Humanities · #Art, Politics, and Modernism #Photography and Visual Culture
paper · doi:10.1215/08992363-1443556
openalex publication_date 2012/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2025/11/06
In 1955 the Museum of Modern Art in New York opened one of the most popular photography exhibitions of all time: The Family of Man. Visitors marveled at images hung over their heads, mounted by their feet, and dangling in midair. This essay shows how The Family of Man and its mode of display marked the simultaneous emergence of a newly liberating politics of attention and a newly constraining mode of social control—both of which remain key features of our contemporary landscape.