Photography

The Brooklyn Museum was one of the first American institutions to assemble a Photography collection. It began collecting photographs well over a century ago. The foundational interests—European works, 19th-century travel photography, and 20th-century American documentary photography—are now complemented by a significant collection of prints by Latin American, African, and Asian photographers. In recent years, the Museum has acquired a great number of contemporary works, including many by Brooklyn-based photographers, that reflect the institution’s wide-ranging interests and commitment to engage diverse communities globally and locally.

Highlights

Explore the Photography collection

History

Exhibitions of photography began at the Brooklyn Museum in 1891, and the institution began collecting photographs out of those exhibitions in 1899.

Early collecting emphasized the work of the late Pictorialists, such as Adolf Fassbender, D. J. Ruzicka, and Max Thorek. A few notable exceptions included acquisitions by Margaret Bourke-White, Youssef Karsh, Gjon Milli, Arnold Newman, Edward Steichen, and Edward Weston, and a full set of Berenice Abbott’s Changing New York.

Later in the 20th century, attention turned to images of life in the United States by photographers such as Consuelo Kanaga, as well as the work of Latin American photographers such as Graciela Iturbide. More recently, acquisitions of contemporary photography have increased dramatically. The collection now represents all genres of work, including street photography, abstraction, portraits, landscapes, and conceptual photography.