On Display: Visual Politics, Material Culture, and Education

This book focuses on one of the most successful photography exhibitions in history, The Family of Man. With The Family of Man as its reference point, this collection of essays takes a closer look at visual and material objects. It examines their relevance for educational issues and exhibition designs. We understand these issues in their broadest sense to encompass processes of citizenship and identity formation and the adoption and/or preservation of ethical and political values with effects that range from the micro to the macro, from the national to the international level. The overall hypothesis of this volume is that images, objects and designs were created and employed as performers and performances that interacted with and attracted mass audiences. This book not only looks at how the presentational, representational and social power of images, objects and designs was deliberately used by political and cultural stakeholders during the mid-1950s, but also how these technologies of display travelled through time and space and, as historical objects, interacted—and continue to interact—with new contexts and audiences.