Exhibition Info
History of Photography [Rotation 10]
This rotation provides an overview of the history of photography through images that include photographers, photographic apparatus, and/or photographic objects. Made by a wide range of photographers, the objects on view begin with John Moffat’s 1865 portrait of William Henry Fox Talbot and culminate in Gillian Wearing’s 2013 work Me As Talbot, a self-portrait that mimics a portrayal of Talbot with his mousetrap camera. Curated by Jamie M. Allen, associate curator of photography, this installation depicts how photographers have referred to the medium, and to themselves, in their image-making.
About the History of Photography Gallery
The George Eastman Museum photography collection is among the best and most comprehensive in the world. With holdings that include objects ranging in date from the announcement of the medium’s invention in 1839 to the present day, the collection represents the full history of photography. Works by renowned masters of the medium exist side-by-side with vernacular and scientific photographs. The collection also includes all applications of the medium, from artistic pursuit to commercial enterprise and from amateur pastime to documentary record, as well as all types of photographic processes, from daguerreotypes to digital prints.
The museum's History of Photography Gallery is dedicated to rotating installations that demonstrate photography’s historical trajectory through photographs and cameras drawn from the collection. The selection of photographs changes twice a year, and each rotation offers new opportunities to engage with the museum's treasures.
![[Contact sheet of Bourke-White photographing on a battlefield]](/internal/media/dispatcher/286767/resize%3Aformat%3Dpostagestamp)
![[Self-portrait as hunter]](/internal/media/dispatcher/286759/resize%3Aformat%3Dpostagestamp)
![[Self-portrait as thinker]](/internal/media/dispatcher/311234/resize%3Aformat%3Dpostagestamp)
![[Self-portrait as artist]](/internal/media/dispatcher/286842/resize%3Aformat%3Dpostagestamp)
![[Hermine Käsebier Turner with Mason and Mina Turner]](/internal/media/dispatcher/286879/resize%3Aformat%3Dpostagestamp)
![[Self-portrait]](/internal/media/dispatcher/286744/resize%3Aformat%3Dpostagestamp)
![[Woman with photographs displayed behind her]](/internal/media/dispatcher/286741/resize%3Aformat%3Dpostagestamp)
