By Kirstin Heinle
Student Writer
USC Annenberg unveiled its latest photo gallery and the School’s first exhibit presented by a student during a reception at the School on Sept 17.
The 21st Century Family of Man: Photography as Public Diplomacy is the work of Master of Public Diplomacy student Paul S. Rockower (pictured), and pays tribute to The Family of Man exhibition that opened at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1955.
The original The Family of Man photo exhibit is a world-renowned photo gallery of nearly 500 photographs from around 200 different artists depicting people of all ages, from all over the world, to demonstrate human commonalities.
“What I’m trying to do here is a little different than that,” Rockower said. “I’m trying to still keep that message that we are all the same. That family is family wherever it is. That faith is the same. That people are the same wherever you go. What I’m trying to do with my exhibit is to bring images of the world here to USC to try and excite people’s interests to see more of the world.”
Rockower, a self-taught photographer, cultivated his talent the last several years during his travels around the world. His goal is to visit 50 countries by the time he is 30, or “50 by 30,” as he puts it. He is only five countries from his goal.
After seeing Annenberg’s photo exhibits World Press Photo and Cerca de la Cerca, Rockower approached the School about creating his own.
“I boldly declared that I could put something together that would rival what they had up,” he said. “To their credit, they said, ‘Let’s see a proposal then.’”
At the time, Rockower was taking a cultural diplomacy with professor and director of the Master Program in Public Diplmacy Nick Cull, a course that helped Rockower establish the exhibit’s overall theme: to pay homage to the The Family of Man exhibit from the Cold War era.
“Through this cultural diplomacy class, I had this idea of trying to take this instance of cultural diplomacy and reimagining it based on my own photographs, and integrate the public diplomacy education I’d been receiving here at USC into something that was an actual exhibit,” Rockower explained. “My hope is that people will see this and will see the colors and the images, and be intrigued and want to go explore more. I’m going to try and get people to travel more and do what I did for a number of years.”
The exhibition is divided into four categories: “The Family of Man” — which is derived from the original gallery, “Children of Man” — which captures young people from all over the world, “Faith of Man” — which seeks to highlight similarities and differences of spiritual life, and “Wonders of Man”— which depicts seven different wonders from the globe including the Sphinx and the Great Wall of China.
The use of "man" in the title was criticized by some when the first The Family of Man opened, explained the director of Annenberg's School of Communication Larry Gross at the gallery reception. However, as a tribute to the esteemed collection, a conscious effort was placed in keeping "man" in Rockower's exhibit, he said.
The photographs range from intimate moments to grandiose statues. Most notable is Rockower’s ability to capture raw emotion in his human subjects.
“I think the best way to be a good photographer is to be humble,” Rockower said. “I think you need to be very easy with your subjects. Try to make them comfortable. Try not to be obtrusive. Be respectful.”
The gallery of more than 60 photographs is a culmination of Rockower’s work throughout the last decade. At 18, he took a year to travel to Israel, and after that, there was no turning back.
“I travel as much as I can," he said. "I don’t have a car. I don’t have a TV. My TV is the bus window or the train window."
Since that time, his travels have taken him from Beijing to Cairo, from Buenos Aires to Tierra del Fuego, and back up to Lima.
At the gallery’s reception, Rockower’s mentor and professor Cull praised the collection saying, “I couldn’t believe one person could have the time to go to all these places, let alone capture them.”
USC Center on Public Diplomacy director Philip Seib echoed Cull's thoughts and emphasized the gallery's importance for public diplomacy.
“Paul has done a remarkable job, not just with his technique, but also in the breadth of this collection," Seib said. "It reminds us that images as a tool as a purveyor of diplomacy are tremendously valuable."
In his closing remarks, Rockower expanded on his goals.
"The world is a narrow bridge. But the work that we do through public diplomacy is try to widen this bridge."
The 21st Century Family of Man: Photography as Public Diplomacy is exhibited in the Annenberg Gallery on the second floor of the Annenberg School building, 3502 Watt Way in Los Angeles until May 17, 2010.
