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Source

The Controversial 'Family of Man'

Multiple (Morgan, Barbara; Alsberg, Cora; Wright, George) Aperture, Incorporated 1955 Tier 2 Unverified Accessed 2026-04-29 View source ↗

Citation

“The Controversial ‘Family of Man’.” Aperture 3, no. 2 (1955). Aperture, Incorporated. [Thematic issue.] Containing at minimum:

  • Morgan, Barbara. “The Theme Show: A Contemporary Exhibition Technique.” Aperture 3, no. 2 (1955).
  • Alsberg, Cora and George Wright. “One Family’s Opinion.” Aperture 3, no. 2 (1955).

ISSN 0003-6420. Archive.org identifier: sim_aperture_1955_3_2. 36 pages. Scanned from microfilm.

Relevance

The only dedicated journal issue published in 1955 to critically engage with The Family of Man from within the photography community. Aperture was founded in 1952 by a consortium of photographers and scholars (the Wikipedia “Aperture (magazine)” article fetched this session names: Ansel Adams, Melton Ferris, Dorothea Lange, Ernest Louie, Barbara Morgan, Beaumont Newhall, Nancy Newhall, Dody Weston Thompson, and Minor White) as a venue for serious photographic discourse. The fact that a founding contributor (Morgan) and critical voices (Alsberg/Wright) debated the exhibition’s approach in the same issue signals the depth of professional ambivalence the show generated. Morgan’s article addresses “the theme show” as an exhibition technique — directly relevant to Paul Rudolph’s installation and Steichen’s curatorial method. Alsberg and Wright raise the concern that the mixed-photographer display format caused photographers to “surrender their individuality.” This is the earliest peer-community critical record of the exhibition.

Key excerpts / pages

  • Article titles confirmed via Wikipedia’s raw wikitext for the article “The Family of Man” (fetched 2026-04-29): Barbara Morgan, “The Theme Show: A Contemporary Exhibition Technique”; Cora Alsberg and George Wright, “One Family’s Opinion.”
  • Interior text of the issue was not read in this session. The archive.org item is print-disabled / borrowable only; download of the OCR text file returned HTTP 401. ABBYY file attempted but returned 404.

Notes

  • Fetched 2026-04-29: https://archive.org/details/sim_aperture_1955_3_2 returned metadata confirming: title “Aperture 1955: Vol 3 Iss 2,” publisher Aperture Incorporated, date 1955, 36 pages, ISSN 0003-6420, identifier sim_aperture_1955_3_2. The item is access-restricted (printdisabled collection).
  • Issue title “The Controversial ‘Family of Man’” is cited in Wikipedia’s article on Aperture magazine (fetched 2026-04-29): “The Controversial ‘Family of Man’” [vol. 3, no. 2, 1955]” — but this Wikipedia statement itself cites no primary source footnote visible in the fetched raw text.
  • Article titles (Morgan; Alsberg/Wright) are cited in the Wikipedia raw wikitext for “The Family of Man” (fetched 2026-04-29).
  • Flagged verified: false because interior text of the issue was not read this session. Full attribution of all articles, page numbers, and exact quotations must be confirmed against the physical issue or a future library borrowing session.
  • Walker Evans’s dismissal of “human familyhood [and] bogus heartfeeling” is attributed to this 1955 period of reception in Wikipedia, but the exact venue (whether Aperture or another outlet) was not specified in the fetched text and is not confirmed here.
  • Perspective: critical / professional. Complements src-barthes-1957 (theoretical critique from outside the photography community) by providing internal professional debate.
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