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Steichen: Retratos de Familia

Córdova, Carlos A. Centro de la Imagen / Secretaría de Cultura, México (essay reproduced as PDF on the Centro de la Imagen WordPress sub-site) 2013 Tier 2 Accessed 2026-05-10 View source ↗

Citation

Córdova, Carlos A. “Steichen: Retratos de Familia.” Essay (4 pp., 131–137), Centro de la Imagen, Mexico City, March 2013. PDF hosted at centrodelaimagen.wordpress.com. Direct fetch 2026-05-10 (cache /.scratch/cordova-2013-steichen-retratos-familia.pdf, HTTP 200, 128 745 bytes, 4 pages).

Tier justification

Tier 2: institutional-author scholarly essay published by Mexico’s federal photography institution.

  • Institutional standing: the Centro de la Imagen is a federal cultural institution under the Secretaría de Cultura (Ministry of Culture) of Mexico (per https://centrodelaimagen.cultura.gob.mx/, fetched 2026-05-10, cache /.scratch/centrodelaimagen-historia.html). It opened on 4 May 1994 and is the principal Mexican federal institution for photographic-history scholarship. The PDF is hosted on the Centro’s then-active WordPress sub-blog centrodelaimagen.wordpress.com, under /wp-content/uploads/2013/03/, with last-modified: 2013-03-21 per HTTP headers — consistent with publication context.
  • Authorial standing: Carlos A. Córdova is the author of the Centro de la Imagen / Conaculta / RM-published monograph Agustín Jiménez y la vanguardia fotográfica en México (RM, 2006) and Arqueología de la Imagen: México en las Vistas Estereoscópicas (Museo de Historia Mexicana, 2000). His scholarly framing follows standard art-historical practice with extensive footnoted citations (28 endnotes) to primary 1955 Mexican press (Novedades, Excélsior) and to Tier-1 secondary literature (Sandeen 1995, Newhall 1982, Eisinger 1999, Sontag, Steichen 1963).
  • Primary-source-grounded: the article quotes specific 1955 Mexican press articles by date and page number (notes 17–25), and explicitly attributes the attendance figure to MoMA’s own records via the U.S. Embassy Mexico (note 20: “Le agradezco esta información a Bertha Cea, de la Oficina de Asuntos Culturales de la Embajada de los Estados Unidos” — i.e., MoMA-records-derived figure relayed by the US Embassy’s Cultural Affairs Office).
  • Down-tier risk: the PDF is hosted on a WordPress sub-blog rather than on the institution’s primary cultura.gob.mx domain, and the WordPress sub-blog is no longer actively maintained. Centro de la Imagen subsequently published Córdova’s monograph Tríptico de sombras via Issuu (2024–2025 era). The PDF is the same author’s published essay material, hosted on the institution’s then-current platform; this is sufficient for Tier-2 status. Promote to Tier-1 if a print/journal citation is later confirmed.

Relevance

The single most-detailed published account of The Family of Man’s Mexico City stop that has been opened in any session of this project. Anchors at primary-citation level:

  • the venue (number 4 Calle Lafragua, Mexico City — exhibition hall facing the Monument to the Revolution);
  • the dates (inaugurated 28 October 1955, closed 13 November 1955 — three weeks);
  • the attendance (“algo más de 12,500 personas” / “more than 12,500 people”, attributed to MoMA’s own records via the U.S. Embassy);
  • Mexican photographers represented (Manuel Álvarez Bravo × 2, Lola Álvarez Bravo × 1);
  • Mexican adapter for the local installation (Daniel Núñez and Manuel Rodríguez Pardo);
  • contemporaneous Mexican press coverage with named bylines, dates, and page numbers (Novedades 29 Oct 1955 p. 1; Novedades 30 Oct 1955 pp. 8–9; Novedades 20 Nov 1955 p. 2 — José Arenas; Diorama de la Cultura / Excélsior 30 Oct 1955 — Rosa Castro);
  • a critical reception narrative (Manuel Álvarez Bravo’s later complaint about poor presentation; the journalist Rosa Castro’s enthusiastic review).

Critically, Córdova’s Mexico City dates differ from the Wikipedia tour-list row. The Wikipedia tour-table (src-wikipedia-fom-tour-list) lists “Mexico City, La Fragua- Conference of Central American States, Oct 21 – Nov 20, 1955” — i.e., a 31-day window that brackets Córdova’s three-week (28 Oct – 13 Nov 1955) actual exhibition period. The discrepancy may reflect the difference between the booked Lafragua hall reservation and the actual public-opening period, or differing conventions for “exhibition dates.” Córdova’s figures rest on contemporaneous Mexican press notices (notes 17–19) and should be preferred until or unless a contradicting Tier-1 source is opened.

Key excerpts / pages

Direct fetch 2026-05-10 (cache /.scratch/cordova-2013-steichen-retratos-familia.pdf). Verbatim from the article body:

  • Venue and dates (p. 133): “En su itinerancia vendría a la ciudad de México. Se presentó en un espacio ubicado frente al Monumento de la Revolución, en el número cuatro de la calle de Lafragua, que funcionaba como sala de exhibiciones. Fue inaugurada el 28 de octubre de 1955, y se mantuvo ahí durante tres semanas hasta su clausura, el 13 de noviembre.” (“In its travels it came to Mexico City. It was shown in a space located in front of the Monument to the Revolution, at number four of Lafragua Street, which functioned as an exhibition hall. It was inaugurated on 28 October 1955, and remained there for three weeks until its closure, on 13 November.”)

  • Promotional framing (p. 133): “Para promocionarla aparecieron en varios diarios anuncios pagados por la embajada. La presentaban como: ‘503 expresiones de la universalidad de los sentimientos del género humano. Fotografías que describen la vida del hombre, su amor, sus tristezas, sus esperanzas, sus alegrías y su muerte’.” (Paid advertisements run by the [U.S.] Embassy in several daily newspapers; promotional framing as “503 expressions of the universality of the feelings of the human race…”)

  • Attendance (p. 134): “Según los registros del MoMA, durante su estancia en México la exposición fue vista por algo más de 12,500 personas.” (Note 20 attributes the figure to Bertha Cea, Oficina de Asuntos Culturales de la Embajada de los Estados Unidos — i.e., the figure comes from MoMA’s records, communicated by the U.S. Embassy’s Cultural Affairs Office.)

  • Mexican adapter and presentation (p. 134): “El montaje museográfico repitió básicamente el esquema diseñado por Rudolph. Lo que nunca se previó fue la necesidad de adaptar las 28 secciones que componían la exhibición a las características de cada espacio museal. De manera que la muestra se transformaba de ciudad en ciudad. En México, este trabajo fue realizado por Daniel Nuñez y Manuel Rodríguez Pardo, quienes lograron rescatar muchos detalles que la hicieron superior a otras versiones ofrecidas.”

  • Free admission (p. 134): “En concordancia con la grandilocuencia del proyecto, la entrada era gratuita, buscando acceder a un público masivo.”

  • Mexican photographers in the show (pp. 134–135): “Del conjunto de obras que participaron en The Family of Man, siete atravesaron el tema mexicano. Dos de ellas del propio Manuel Álvarez Bravo … Por su parte, Lola Álvarez Bravo participó con su célebre Entierro en Yalalag … Realmente el único fotógrafo mexicano que entendió la escala de esta exhibición fue Lola Álvarez Bravo.” The Mexican-photographer count is 3 image-by-Mexican (2 Manuel, 1 Lola) plus 4 Mexico-themed images by foreign photographers (Reva Brooks, Jasper Wood, May Mirin, Wayne Miller).

  • Contemporary critical reception (p. 135): “Aprovechando la multireproducción de lo fotográfico, se construyeron dos versiones [estadounidenses] … Estábamos de ánimo internacionalista. Pero con todo, la cobertura de prensa para esta exhibición dejó escasas huellas.” And: “Años más tarde, uno de sus participantes, Manuel Álvarez Bravo, recordaría que la exhibición estuvo mal presentada, lo que incidió sobre su escasa afluencia.” (Manuel Álvarez Bravo’s later judgement, source-noted to Hill & Cooper, Diálogo con la fotografía, Barcelona, Gustavo Gili, 1980, p. 216.)

  • Cited contemporaneous Mexican press (notes 17–25, p. 137):

    • Note 17: anonymous, Novedades, 29 oct. 1955, p. 1 — “Obtiene gran éxito la exposición fotográfica La familia del hombre.”
    • Note 19: anonymous, Novedades, 30 oct. 1955, pp. 8–9 — “La familia del hombre, un montaje excepcional, su acertado diseño enmarca las cualidades de magnífica exposición.”
    • Note 20: “Le agradezco esta información a Bertha Cea, de la Oficina de Asuntos Culturales de la Embajada de los Estados Unidos.” (US Embassy Cultural Affairs Office is the source of the 12 500-attendance figure, citing MoMA records.)
    • Note 22: Rosa Castro, “Entrevista con Lola Álvarez Bravo” in Diorama de la Cultura (Excélsior), 30 oct. 1955, p. 3.
    • Note 24: José Arenas, “El hombre y su familia” in México en la cultura (Novedades), 20 nov. 1955, p. 2.
    • Note 25: Rosa Castro, “La Familia del Hombre” in Diorama de la Cultura (Excélsior), 30 oct. 1955, pp. 1, 3–4.

Notes

  • Direct fetch 2026-05-10 (cache /.scratch/cordova-2013-steichen-retratos-familia.pdf). HTTP 200, 4-page PDF, 128 745 bytes, last-modified 2013-03-21 per HTTP headers.
  • Date discrepancy with Wikipedia tour-list row. Córdova: 28 Oct – 13 Nov 1955 (three weeks). Wikipedia (src-wikipedia-fom-tour-list): 21 Oct – 20 Nov 1955 (31 days). Cordova’s dates are anchored to the contemporaneous Novedades press notices of 29 and 30 October 1955; the Wikipedia row is uncited at row level. The discrepancy is recorded in research/world-tour.md §5; Córdova’s dates are preferred as the anchored figure.
  • Tour-aggregate figure variant carried (p. 134). Córdova writes that Compo Photocolor produced “seis duplicados” (six duplicates) for the USIA, which then “recorrió sesenta y nueve países … apreciada por más de nueve millones de personas” (toured 69 countries, seen by more than 9 million people). The figures pair “9M” with “69 countries”, differing again from the four other Tier-1/2 figures recorded in research/world-tour.md §3 (CNA: 10M / 1955–1964; Turner 2012: 7.5M / 37 countries; O’Brian 2008: 9M / 61 countries; C²DH: 37 countries; Polish Wikipedia: 91 cities / 38 countries). The “6 duplicates” figure is also at variance with the CNA “10 copies” and Wikipedia’s four-copy table. These discrepancies reinforce the existing finding that the headline aggregate is unsettled across Tier-1/2 sources.
  • What this source does NOT carry: per-image hang count for the Mexico installation; the precise number of plates shown in Mexico (the article cites the “503” overall but does not state how many were hung at Lafragua); a copy-number identification (Wikipedia attributes Mexico City to “Copy 2 — Central America, India, Africa, Middle East” — Córdova does not specify which copy circulated to Mexico); the post-Mexico itinerary of the same physical copy.
  • Cross-reference: src-wikipedia-fom-tour-list (Tier-3 row level — discrepant dates); src-cna-education (Tier-1 — names Mexico as one of nine sample countries but no city/venue/dates); src-sandeen-1995 (chapter “The family of man on the move” likely treats the Mexico stop; body text not opened in any round); src-sandeen-2015-guatemala (Tier-2 — covers the directly preceding Guatemala City stop, with which Mexico City was paired institutionally as a Central-American leg in late summer / autumn 1955); research/world-tour.md §5 (consolidated tour-venues table); src-artishock-2022-fom-bogota (Tier-3 reception article carrying the MoMA-archive-derived Copy-4 itinerary that does NOT include Mexico — consistent with Mexico being on Copy 2 in 1955).
  • Perspective: Mexican federal cultural-institution scholarship; second-person standpoint of a Mexican art historian writing about a USIA-promoted exhibition that came to his city. Córdova is critical-realist about the show’s Cold-War instrumentality (“convertido en instrumento propagandístico”) while granting the museographic and curatorial significance.
  • The four Mexico-themed photographs by foreign photographers named by Córdova (Reva Brooks; Jasper Wood; May Mirin; Wayne Miller) are a useful secondary research angle for the Mexican-content side of the show, separate from the tour-history angle.
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