ow would you go about defining the full spectrum of 21st century human civilisation in photographs? That was the question that world-renowned photography curator William A Ewing asked himself back in 2010. Such an exhibition would need to be epic in scale – like Edward Steichen’s seminal Family of Man exhibition which toured the world in the 1950s and was seen by nine million people. It would be very expensive to stage and would need the support of major museums and galleries around the globe in order to be a success. Fortunately, Ewing managed to make all of these things happen. The resulting exhibition, Civilization: The Way We Live Now, comprises over 350 images by some of the world’s leading photographers, and is one of the most astonishing, thought provoking and visually spectacular displays of photography
