Merging two artistic legacies

A collective of Black photographers is the subject of a marvelous new Getty show.

Hugely popular with the public, Edward Steichen’s 1955 documentary photography exhibition for New York’s Museum of Modern Art, “The Family of Man,” drew sharply divided critical responses.

Some loved the show, which sought to reveal similarities among diverse people everywhere, as much as the general public did during an unprecedented eightyear tour to 37 countries around the world. (Nine million people are estimated to have seen it.) Others did not.

Getty,

Ming Smith “AMERICA SEEN Through Stars and Stripes, New York City, New York,” circa 1976, by Ming Smith, the Kamoinge Workshop’s sole female photographer.