ABSTRACT
Max Horkheimer began his Introduction to the photo-exhibition on The Family of Mane by stressing what he saw as its implicit philosophical point d’appui, which he argued tied together American and European, most notably German, Idealist thought. Horkheimer finished his Introduction to the exhibition by returning to the question of identification, noting that there was an important exception to the mimetic empathy aroused by Steichen’s selection of photographs, which appear in those that depict what he called, once again following Kant, ‘radical evil’. The independence is carried over into the subject's attitude toward social institutions and authorities in general.' It was this version of the family, so champions of the exhibition have argued, that Steichen tacitly hoped to foster. If politics means anything, it means dealing impersonally with rivals and adversaries, as well as friends, both genuine and of convenience, who are not in any meaningful sense bound to us by the affective ties of family.
