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17 During the First World War, Steichen was posted to Europe to run the aerial photography division of the American Expeditionary Force, and he remained there until 1919. The clarity of the aerial photographs convinced Steichen to change his style and embrace the clear, sharp images that cameras could make. He abandoned the soft-focus and heavy retouching of his earlier work. In 1923, Steichen received his first major break as a photographer, when he became chief photographer for Condé Nast Publications. For the next fifteen years he took fashion photographs for Vogue and portraits for Vanity Fair, becoming hugely influential in both fields. His portraits of Gloria Swanson (1924) and Greta Garbo (1928), for example, have become icons in the history of photography. He closed his studio in 1938 in order to concentrate on another passion, plant breeding. After the Second World War, Steichen changed paths again and became Director of the Department of Photography at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. He had already had significant success at promoting photography in America, particularly at 291 Gallery, and this appointment was to be his apotheosis. Between 1947 and 1962, Steichen organised over forty exhibitions, and also bought photographic prints for the museum. Then, in 1955, he organised the most successful photographic exhibition of all time, entitled The Family of Man. It consisted of over five hundred prints by photographers from sixty-eight countries, and its purpose was to highlight similarities between nations, and to demonstrate that the human experience is universal. It was toured extensively and, by the time it closed, over nine million people had seen the exhibition. Quite apart from its curatorial ambitions, The Family of Man was also important in that it established photography as a suitable medium for museum exhibitions. Steichen was married three times, to Clara Smith, to Dana Desoro Glover, and then to Joanna Taub. He died on 25 March 1973 in West Redding, Connecticut. Inscribed with 'Vanity Fair, 1927 #18' Silver gelatin print, printed c. 1927 9 1/2 x 7 1/2 inches 05 Edward Steichen, Fred Astaire in Funny Face, 1927 Edward Steichen took this portrait of legendary dancer and actor, Fred Astaire, for Vanity Fair in 1927. Astaire was starring in the musical Funny Face (Gershwin and Gershwin), during its original run on Broadway. He starred alongside his sister, Adele Astaire, who worked as his dance partner until her marriage in 1932. Funny Face opened on November 22, 1927, as the very first show at the newly built Alvin Theatre, and marked Astaire's first performance dressed in evening dress with top hat, a striking look that would come to define his career.