Families: Blood and Acquired

Lower West Side Revisited Revisited (Felix and Wife) Milton Rogovin (American, 1909–2011) 1992 Photograph, gelatin silver print * Gift of Denise Jarvinen and Pierre Cremieux © Photography by Milton Rogovin. Copyright 1952-2002 * Photograph © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Jimmy Paulette and Tabboo! in the bathroom, NYC Nan Goldin (American, born in 1953) 1991 Photograph, Cibachrome print * Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation Fund for Photography © Nan Goldin * Photograph © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Self-portrait (Julie) with family in SUV, Michigan Julie Mack (American, born in 1982) 2007 Photograph, chromogenic print * James N. Krebs Purchase Fund for 21st Century Photography © Julie Mack. Courtesy Laurence Miller Gallery, New York. * Photograph © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Migrant Family, Texas Dorothea Lange (American, 1895–1965) 1936 Photograph, gelatin silver print * Sophie M. Friedman Fund * Photograph © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

U.S. Marine Lcpl. Damon "Commie" Connell age 20, Garmsir,  Helmand, Afghanistan Louie Palu (Canadian, born in 1968) 2008 Photograph, inkjet print * Museum purchase with funds donated in honor of Linda and Alex  Beavers * Photograph © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Twins at WDIA (radio station) Ernest C. Withers (American, 1922–2007) about 1948 Photograph, gelatin silver print * Sophie M. Friedman Fund * Photograph © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Nayla, Ted, Alexandra, Nick, March 30, 1995 Elsa Dorfman (American, born in 1937) 1995 Photograph, Polaroid polacolor * Gift of Elsa Dorfman in memory of Dorothy Glaser © Elsa Dorfman, 2013, all rights reserved * Photograph © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Yazoo City, Mississippi Nicholas Nixon (American, born in 1947) 1979 Photograph, gelatin silver contact print * Museum purchase with funds donated by the National Endowment  for the Arts and Richard L. Menschel, Bela T. Kalman, Judge and  Mrs. Matthew Brown, Mildred S. Lee, and Barbara M. Marshall © Nicholas Nixon, Courtesy Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco * Photograph © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Ethel Shariff in Chicago Gordon Parks (American, 1912–2006) 1963, printed 2001 Photograph, gelatin silver print * Gift of Gus and Arlette Kayafas in honor of Karen E. Haas * Photograph © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Thanksgiving Tina Barney (American, born in 1945) 1992 Photograph, chromogenic print (Ektacolor) * Contemporary Curator's Fund, including funds donated by Barbara  and Thomas Lee © Tina Barney * Photograph © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

G.K. Chesterton once wrote that the best way to test our compassion for our fellow human beings would be to slide down the chimney into a house at random, “and get on as well as possible with the people inside. And that is essentially what each one of us did on the day that he was born.”

The families we grow up with tend to try our patience, while the family units we find ourselves in later in life, whether by choice or circumstance, inspire different but often complex emotions. An exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, “(un)expected families,” features work by several photographers of the 20th and 21st centuries who have various family structures. The 80 photos on view vary in style and subject, but all share common themes of loyalty, affection, romantic love and camaraderie.

The show includes images by some of the many photographers who have returned time and again to photographing their own families. These include Julie Mack, whose self-portrait with her family wittily captures familial tension. Other photographers capture the bonds between their portrait subjects. Nicholas Nixon, known for photographing his wife and her sisters for decades, is here represented by his portraits of parents with their children and family mementos. Dorothea Lange, for example, shows the mother in a migrant family with her kids.

What about the kinship formed among people brought together by circumstance? Louie Palu’s photo of a Marine in Afghanistan is a portrait of war, but in the context of the “(un)expected families” show, we are reminded of the company he supports in the field. Gordon Parks’s image of a woman surrounded by members of her mosque show the kinship that’s created within a faith community. Nan Goldin takes viewers inside a close-knit circle of friends, exploring the loyalty that forms between those who find themselves marginalized by society.

The exhibition, curated by Karen Haas, also includes vernacular images pulled from family albums and snapshot collections.

—Holly Stuart Hughes

“(un)expected families”
through June 17, 2018
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
MFA.org

Posted in:

Historical

Tags:

Dorothea Lange, family, Friendship, Gordon Parks, Historical, Museum of Fine Art Boston, Nan Goldin, Nicholas Nixon, portraiture

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