RARE CAMERAS & PHOTOGRAPHY
Lot 48:
“Peruvian Flute Player” a silver photo by listed photographer, Eugene Harris. This lot includes the original ad it was purchased from, along with a hardcover copy of “The Family of Man”, the greatest photographic exhibition of all time created by Edward Steichen for the Museum of Modern Art. Photo measures in the frame, 17.5” H x 21.5” W. Harris’s early photography career capitalized on success of his 1954 award-winning Flute Player photo (also titled The Piper and Peruvian Boy With Flute in various places). This image was taken during professional travel to areas surrounding Pisac, Peru and Machu Picchu. He won a cash prize for the Flute Player through the International Picture Contest, awarded by Popular Photography magazine in 1954. The most significant commendation for the photo, however, was its use in Edward Steichen’s 1955 exhibition The Family of Man at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. Harris’s Flute Player image had a participatory role in the exhibition as it was the sole recurring image. Appearing five times, the photo functioned as a leitmotif or capstone image, helping to create a cyclical statement. Steichen had originally conceived the exhibition to be presented with music and it was wired for sound; upon seeing Harris’s Flute Player photo, Steichen and exhibition assistant Wayne F. Miller decided to use the Flute Player image in place of sound. The Family of Man is a substantial and prominent exhibition in photographic history; it reached an estimated nine million viewers in its New York showing and subsequent world tour. Now permanently housed in the Château de Clervaux in Luxembourg, country of Steichen’s birth, the Family of Man exhibition was added to the Register of the Memory of the World by the UNESCO in 2003. It also exists in popular book form.
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