ABSTRACT
Humanist photography reached its apogee in the 1950s, a time when photographers themselves began publishing critical material on the medium, defending it from its otherwise quasi-feral state, still ignored by art historians and art critics. In order to make sense of the vast number of photographers working at this time, their many formal and political disagreements, and the enormous quantity of humanist photographs and writing produced during the Cold War period. The precarious balance of power began shifting with Kruschev’s revelations of Stalin’s crimes at the XX Party Congress in 1953 as well as the Soviet invasion of Hungary in 1956. The Family of Man, celebrating the brotherhood of mankind, attempted to override existential doubts and fears about the future of mankind and the loss of belief, creating an American utopia in which democracy was seen as the common political denominator.
