Black and white photographs of people around the world.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Still photograph that moves the heart.,
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This review is from: The Family of Man: The Greatest Photographic Exhibition of All Time- 503 Pictures from 68 Countries (Hardcover)
This book speaks to the heart of any one who has one. The beauty of black and white photography illuminates the the dark and light sides of the human the condition.Despite it being dated (there are Images from countries that have changed names, governments and enviroments since its inseption),this book covers the hole gamit of human emotion and condition. As relavent today, as the day this exibition opened at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1955 it's my belief that the world would be a better place if this book was apart of all childrens schooling. the photos are accompanied by timeless quotes from the Bible, Albert Einstien, Plato, Tomas Jeffeson The Sioux Indian and many others. To Quote one to make my point, "Every man beareth the whole stamp of the human condition". Montaigne.
2.0 out of 5 stars
A reflection of the times,
This review is from: The Family of Man: The Greatest Photographic Exhibition of All Time- 503 Pictures from 68 Countries (Paperback)
I rediscovered this book in my collection and was looking forward to seeing the photos again for the first time in 25 years. I remember ooh-ind and ahh-ing over them and thinking, how significant! But that's the trouble with this book. Pretentiousness and import hang heavily over it. It's very much a product of left-leaning '50s sentiments, the zeitgeist of the black-and-white Eisenhower era.
In the introduction, Carl Sandburg waxes Sandburgian: "Peoople! flung wide and far, born into toil, struggle, blood and dreams, among lovers, eaters, drinkers, workers, loafers, fighters, players, gamblers. Here are ironworkers, bridgemen, musicians, sandhogs. . . " - but you get the idea. Presumably, they don't all live in Chicago. There is a little photo of a smiling piper that appears every other page or so: "Follow me! I'm the piper!", etc. The pages are grouped in a way that somehow embarrasses me. It starts with a James Joyce quote about sex ("and his heart was going like mad/and yes I said yes I will Yes.") On the facing page is a volcano with lava running down, and a picture of an embracing couple lying on a picnic blanket. Then it goes on to pregnant women, one holding a cigarette, then BIRTH, a newborn being held upside-down by one leg by the doctor. And on and on. There are lots of quotes, such as "Sing, sweetness, to the last palpitation of the evening and the breeze." One can almost hear the schmaltzy Aaron Copland score in the background. It's hard to put my finger on just why this is so offputting. Joy: OK, let's show a whole lot of people smiling (mostly men of the soil, with a few society types thrown in to show the vast diversity of "people!") Sorrow: let's get out the war pictures, and the old black man crying in the rocking chair. I guess their intentions were good, but I could find only one picture I really liked this time, a monk kneeling in the middle of an empty street in Colombia. The book ends with a stunning display of eight couples, most of them old and weatherbeaten, and under each photo is the caption, "We two form a multitude" (eight times already!). There are some ominous warnings about nuclear war and even a little picture of Einstein standing over a messy desk looking puzzled ("hmmmmm, vere did I put zat zandwich?"). There's also a brief nod to the UN, reminding us how lefty-liberal this whole enterprise is, and probably seen as downright pinko by the House Unamerican Committee. Maybe that's why it's been out of print for so long.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Life Changing!,
By Aileen Vargo (Las Vegas, NV, US) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Family of Man: The Greatest Photographic Exhibition of All Time- 503 Pictures from 68 Countries (Paperback)
I was given this book when I was 13 years old, as a birthday present. I have since given a copy of it to every person I hold dear in my life. This is one of the BEST photojournalistic books every! You will be a much better human being after going through the entire "photo journey" of this book. It will touch your heart.
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