What is the influence of the film festival "Human Family" held by Steichen?

From 1947 to 1962, Steichen was the director of photography department of new york Museum of Modern Art. During this period, he organized and held 32 film exhibitions of different styles and genres.

Steichen believes that creative photography should have the right of free expression. So he often exhibited some works that only a few people could understand at that time. At the same time, he also held a solo exhibition for unknown young photographers, providing them with opportunities to make public appearances.

But among all the film festivals held by Steichen, the "Human Family" photo exhibition held by 1955 is the largest and has the most far-reaching influence. This film festival is exhibited all over the world, with a cumulative audience of 300,000, which is unprecedented in the history of photography.

Steichen and his assistant spent two whole years organizing the "Human Family" photo exhibition. They carefully selected 503 works from more than 2 million photos collected around the world, including 273 authors from 68 countries, to form this special film exhibition. The way of exhibition is also very special: instead of hanging photos in a photo frame, they are directly mounted on a flat plate, which is arranged and combined into several themes according to different contents; Photos vary in size. The largest photo, 4 meters high, is as big as a wall. These topics, each group reflects a side of human life, life and death, joys and sorrows, joys and sorrows, all-encompassing. First of all, it starts with a photo symbolizing the birth of human beings, followed by scenes of maternal love, study, love, marriage and childbirth on the road of life. The film festival praised the wisdom and civilization of human beings, and at the same time exposed the misfortune of human beings-the cruelty of war and disaster. As Steichen said: We have deep love for mankind and full confidence in the future of mankind, and compiled this film festival.

1962, Steichen announced his retirement at the age of 83. 1964 was awarded the "Photography Achievement Award" by the American Photography Yearbook. Steichen won numerous honors in his life, and his contribution to photography really deserved.