A Second Look at What We Share as the Human Race
(Long Island, NY) “The Family of Man ––Redux 2015”, an exhibition of photographs focusing on the commonalities that bind people and cultures around the world, is on view from June 13 to July 12, 2015, in the Jeanie Tengelsen Gallery of the Art League of Long Island. Inspired by Edward Steichen’s monumental Family of Man exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art in 1955, photographer Rick Wenner has assembled sixty works by an array of Long Island photographers that reflect the gamut of life from birth to death.
As Steichen wrote in his catalog introduction of the original exhibition, “The exhibition demonstrates that the art of photography is a dynamic process of giving form to ideas and of explaining man to man. It was conceived as a mirror of the universal elements and emotions in the everydayness of life, a mirror of the essential oneness of mankind throughout the world.”
“Tears of Joy.” Photo Credit: Robin Appel.
Grouped thematically, the photographs in the Art League’s exhibition explore instances, happy and sad, funny and poignant, even disturbing. Among them is the thrill and wonder of holding a minutes-old infant, the energy and antics of childhood, tender family moments, the pleasures of lying in the sun on a beach or savoring an ice cream cone or a cigarette, the joy of a wife welcoming her soldier husband back from the war. There is a section devoted to the land, notably farming. More somber realities are hardships, illness, loneliness, and aging. Along with these are scenes of compassion, grouped under a quotation from Anne Frank’s “Diary”: “I still believe that people are really good at heart.”
What all the photographs share is the delight of a fresh point of view–in a word, surprise.
Juror Rick Wenner has selected the following photographic works for the following awards of distinction:
Awards of Excellence
- Robin Appel, Heavenly Tears of Joy, digital photograph
- Spencer Ross, Waiting at the Clinic, photograph, film
- Greg Tsontakis-Mally, Wengyi, photography: large format
Honorable Mentions
- Patricia Colombraro, ALS, photograph, film
- Gloria Golden, Tarahumara, digital photograph
- Jennifer Mullowney, In awe, digital photograph
- Paul Schmid, Sleeping Cambodian Boy, digital photograph
The Jeanie Tengelsen Gallery is open free of charge Monday through Thursday 9am– 9pm, Friday 9am – 4pm and weekends from 11am – 4pm. The Art League is located at 107 East Deer Park Road in Dix Hills. For more information call (631) 462-5400 or visit www.artleagueli.org.
The exhibition is sponsored by the Bridgehampton National Bank.
