Poignant photographs chronicle the evolution of the American family

Eighty photographs spanning 150 years chronicle the evolution of the American family in a new exhibition at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts. The concept is explored in its broadest form, from the families we’re born in to the ones we’ve chosen, with a wide range of relationships and structures.

“The family is such a basic social construct and something that most of us have experienced in one way or another over the course of our lives, so I hope that the work in the exhibition will resonate with our visitors on a very elemental level,” said curator Karen Haas in an email.

The selection has followed a few simple criteria: “We only present images of American families, and we only include images in which the family members are visible within the frame, even when one of them is the artist herself or himself,” said Haas.

Nan Goldin - "Jimmy Paulette and Tabboo! in the bathroom, NYC" (1991) —

A new exhibition at Boston's Museum of Fine Arts explores the broad concept of family. In this shot, photographer Nan Goldin captures two drag queen friends in New York's East Village, with the goal of representing them as neither male nor female, but embodying an ideal "third gender."

Julie Mack - "Self-portrait (Julie) with family in SUV, Michigan" (2007) —

From curator Karen Haas: "Julie Mack's large-scale photograph records the young artist herself (wearing glasses) along with her parents and siblings seated in the glowing interior of the family's SUV in their Michigan driveway. At once subversively funny and totally deadpan, this minutely staged picture seems the perfect evocation of the suburban dweller's dependence on the claustrophobic environment of the family car."

Christopher Churchill - "Hutterite Classroom, Gildford, MT" (2005) —

Christopher Churchill traveled the US in the years after 9/11 to make a series of pictures on the theme of American faith. Over the course of the project, he visited various sacred landscapes, places of worship, and religious communities including the Hutterites, a branch of Anabaptists who trace their beginnings back to the Protestant Reformation and who settled in Western Canada and the Upper Great Plains at the turn of the 20th century.

Tina Barney - "Thanksgiving" (1992) —

From curator Karen Haas: "Tina Barney's large-scale color photographs from the early 1990s often center on the lives of her own well-off family and friends. In intimate images like this one, of a comfortable New England kitchen at Thanksgiving, Barney clearly has an insider's perspective on the scene that unfolds before her large-format camera. Only with longer looking does one begin to understand just how carefully staged and complex this seemingly casual photograph really is."

Dorothea Lange - "Migrant Family, Texas" (1936) —

During the Great Depression, photographer Dorothea Lange documented the lives of migrant farm workers and their families as they tried to escape the terrible drought in the nation's Dust Bowl. Working with a waist-height viewfinder on her camera, Lange interacted with her subjects and listened to their stories as she took their pictures -- as in this image of a weary mother and her three children.

Nicholas Nixon - "Yazoo City, Mississippi" (1979) —

From curator Karen Haas: "During the late 1970s Boston-based photographer, Nicholas Nixon, made a groundbreaking series of portraits of southern families on the porches and front yards of their homes. Although in many cases Nixon's pictures feature large groups of people moving in and out of these semi-public spaces, this one is particularly riveting in the somewhat unexpected reversal of roles between the two figures. Here the muscular, bare-chested man, who sits with his arm draped around the child, drops his eyes and looks down, while the girl bravely meets the gaze of Nixon's view camera with a strength and self-possession that imbues the image with real emotional depth."

Gordon Parks - "Ethel Shariff in Chicago" (1963) —

Photographer Gordon Parks took this image on assignment for Life magazine as part of a story on Malcolm X and the Black Muslims in 1963. Ethel Shariff was the eldest daughter of longtime Nation of Islam head, Elijah Muhammad, and it was she who pressed her father to grant women a more active and public role within the religious group.

Consuelo Kanaga - "She is a Tree of Life to Them" (1950) —

From curator Karen Haas: "Consuelo Kanaga was a member of the radical New York Photo League during the 1930s and thereafter developed a reputation as a white documentary photographer with a passion for social justice and deep sympathy for her often African American subjects. This powerful image of a rail-thin migrant worker in Florida with her two children clinging to her sides was featured in the MoMA's Family of Man exhibition (1955) under the title, 'She is a Tree of Life to Them.'"

Ernest C. Withers - "Twins at WDIA, Memphis" (1948) —

From curator Karen Haas: "African American photojournalist Ernest Withers is best known for his documentation of the civil rights movement in the South, but like many of his contemporaries, he tackled a wide range of subjects over the course of his career in order to make a living. Not long after the founding of his hometown of Memphis' popular radio station WDIA in 1947, Withers made a number of images of performers at the station's studios. WDIA had begun as a white-owned and white-run business, but it soon after transformed the entire field of radio when it changed over to all-black programming. Its Goodwill Revues featured major figures, such as Ray Charles and B.B. King, but the station drew grassroots musicians and vocalists as well, like this pair of twins singing their hearts out in identical outfits and standing on telephone books to reach the microphones."

Louie Palu - "U.S. Marine Gysgt. Carlos "OJ" Orjuela, age 31, Garmsir, Helmand, Afghanistan" (2008) —

This photo by Canadian photojournalist Louie Palu was taken inside an empty bunker turned into a makeshift studio in Afghanistan.

The evolution of the American family, in pictures

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Among the artists represented in the exhibition, titled “(un)expected families,” are Andy Warhol, Nan Goldin, Tina Barney, Gordon Parks, Sally Mann, Diane Arbus, Nicholas Nixon and Bruce Davidson. Some of the oldest photographs depict children sat on the laps of concealed adults – a trick used in the 1860s and 1870s to keep infants still during shoots.

The shots are intentionally mixed in style: “From the very start we discussed the importance of featuring not only fine art photography, but also documentary, vernacular and snapshot photographs,” said Haas.

Although many of the photos show biological or romantic families, the exhibition explores “chosen families” as well, often documented by photographers embedded in particular groups. Among these are shots by Louie Palu, who spent years in Afghanistan covering the war and taking portraits of marines there.

This photo by Canadian photojournalist Louie Palu was taken inside an empty bunker turned into a makeshift studio in Afghanistan.

One of Haas’ favorite images in the exhibition is a shot by Nan Goldin depicting two drag queen friends in New York’s East Village in 1991: “Goldin lost many of her circle to the AIDS epidemic; images like these are tangible records of powerful human connections in fragile times. As Goldin says: ‘I used to think that I could never lose anyone if I photographed them enough. In fact, my pictures show me how much I’ve lost.’”

The exhibition also includes an interactive component, prompting visitors to share their own perspectives by thinking about a real or imagined photograph of their family and describing its meaning onto a card. A selection of these written responses will be put on display, and all will be archived as part of a permanent exhibition record.

(un)expected families is on show at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston through Jun. 17, 2018.