An upcoming photography exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston will explore the definition of the American family.
More than 80 photos from the 19th century to the present day have been compiled from some of the nation’s most foremost photographers including Dorothea Lange, Nan Holdin, Carrie Mae Weems, LaToya Ruby Frazier and Harry Callahan.
The exhibition, called ‘(un)expected families,’ uses archival, vernacular and fine art photographs to illustrate the concept.
Dorothea Lange (1895-1965) was a photographer and photojournalist whose work chronicling the human face of the Great Depression made her an icon in both life and death. She is particularly known for her portrait ‘Migrant Mother’. Pictured is a 1936 photograph taken in Texas called ‘Migrant Family’
Nan Goldin (1953-) is a photographer who has chronicled the LGBT communities in cities including New York, Boston and Berlin. This photograph of two drag queens named Jimmy Paulette (facing the camera) and Tabboo! (not facing the camera) was taken in New York City in 1991
Christopher Churchill took this photograph of a Hutterite classroom in Gildford, Montana in 2005. Hutterites are a religious group sprung from the Anabaptist Church. There are around 45,000 Hutterites across the United States and Canada; in the former, they are mostly congregated in the Dakotas and Montana
Nicholas Nixon (1947-) is a portrait photographer and took this photo of a man and girl in Yazoo City, Mississippi in 1979. The photograph is one of the more than 80 that are part of ‘(un)expected families,’ an upcoming exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. The exhibition begins December 9
The intimate photographs provide snapshots of multiple generations, romantic unions and alternative family structures, to name but a few.
From a migrant family in Texas in 1936 to a child in the 1860s, a Marine in Afghanistan to a contemporary Hutterite classroom, the photographs chart what family means for the diverse population of the United States and how its meaning has changed over time.
They show families that contrast with one another: both affluent and destitute, cohesive and fractured and expected and unexpected, for example.
The museum notes: ‘Taken together, the photographs challenge visitors to consider what family means to them.’
DailyMail.com has seen 18 of the photographs in advance of the exhibition.
The more than 80 photos will go on view at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts from December 9 until June 17.
Louie Palu (1968-) is a Canadian photojournalist and filmmaker particularly known for his portraits of soldiers in Afghanistan. Pictured is Carlos ‘OJ’ Orjuela, a 31-year-old Gunnery Sergeant in the United States Marines. The photograph was taken in 2008 in Garmsir District, Helmand Province, Afghanistan
Julie Mack took this self-portrait of her family in their SUV in Michigan in 2007. The museum said of the exhibition: ‘Taken together, the photographs challenge visitors to consider what family means to them.’ The photographs will be in display until June 17
Consuelo Kanaga (1894-1978) was a photographer particularly known for her pictures of African Americans. Her work has been exhibited in the Museum of Modern Art and the Brooklyn Museum. This photograph, titled ‘She is a Tree of Life to Them,’ was taken in 1950
Tina Barney (1945-) is a photographer known for her vibrant, color photographs of the intimate lives of posh New Yorkers and New Englanders. This photograph was taken at a Thanksgiving feast in 1992. The exhibition’s photographs show families both affluent and destitute, cohesive and fractured and expected and unexpected
Gordon Parks (1912-2006) was a photographer known for his documentation of the civil rights movement and African American life. He was also a film director noted for pioneering the ‘blaxploitation’ genre via the 1971 film Shaft. This is a photograph of Ethel Shariff and was taken in Chicago in 1963. A Chicago Tribune obituary for the woman, who died in 2002 at the age of 80, notes that she was the oldest daughter of Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad and ‘gently advised her father to allow women in the organization more freedom of expression and equality’
Tanja Hollander took this photograph of Brittany Marcoux and Brian McGuire in Swansea, Massachusetts in 2012. The exhibition employs archival, vernacular and fine art photographs to explore the definition of the American family and how the definition has changed over time
Ernest C Withers (1922-2007) was a photographer known for his documentation of life in the southern United States during segregation. Notably, he covered the trial of the men accused of murdering Emmett Till, a 14-year-old African American boy who was brutally murdered by two white men. This photograph of singing twins was taken around 1948 at WDIA, a radio station in Memphis, Tennessee
Nicholas Nixon also took this 2006 photograph, called Tammy Hindle, which appears in the exhibition. The photograph shows a woman holding a photograph of a baby, and the reflection of the woman’s body in the photograph. The exhibition’s photographs provide snapshots of multiple generations, romantic unions and alternative family structures
Milton Rogovin (1909-2011) was a documentary photographer whose work chronicling workers and families has been enshrined in the Library of Congress. Notably, he did a photographic series on coal miners around the world. This photograph was taken in 1992 and is titled: ‘Felix and his Wife, Buffalo’
Dawoud Bey (1953-) is a photographer known for his color portraits of various subjects, perhaps most notably teenagers. This 2005 photograph is of a teen named Kevin and is from Bey’s series Class Pictures, which is a study of high school students across the country
Roswell Angier (1940-) is a photographer and author. This photograph of Mr and Mrs Steve Mills was taken at Boston’s Pilgrim Theatre in 1973. The theatre was an infamous burlesque house in a part of Downtown Boston that was then an adult entertainment district known as the Combat Zone. The building was demolished in the 1990s
Jock Sturges (1947-) is a photographer known for his intimate portraits of families. This photograph, called ‘Misty Dawn and Alisa,’ was taken in Northern California in 1989. His books showing nudity, notably in The Last Day of Summer, have attracted controversy and prompted unsuccessful lawsuits against booksellers who carry them
Elsa Dorfman (1937-) has photographed notables such as Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Allen Ginsberg (both of the Beat Generation) and musicians such as Bob Dylan and Steven Tyler over the years. This photograph, titled ‘Nayla, Ted, Alexandra, Nick,’ was taken on March 30, 1995
This untitled photograph was taken by an unknown photographer sometime around the 1860s or 1970s. It is called ‘Hidden Mother’. The exhibition’s photographs chart what family means for the diverse population of the United States and how its meaning has changed over time