About

The Department of Photographs was established in 1984 with the acquisition of several of the most important private collections in the world, including those of Bruno Bischofberger, Arnold Crane, Volker Kahmen/Georg Heusch, and Samuel Wagstaff, Jr. Through a continuing program of acquisitions by purchase and donation, the Getty Museum has assembled the finest and most comprehensive corpus of photographs on the West Coast.

The collection is particularly rich in works dating from the time of photography’s invention in England and France in the late 1830s and early 1840s. International in scope, it encompasses substantial holdings by some of the most significant makers of the 19th through the 21st centuries active in Europe, the United States, South America, Asia, and Africa.

Photographs are sensitive to light and cannot be kept on permanent display. Rotating exhibitions drawn from the collection and supplemented by loans are on view in the galleries of the Center for Photographs at the Getty Center.

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Study Room

Ordering Images

Submissions Review

Appraisals

Loan Requests

Staff Directory

  1. James Ganz

    Senior Curator, Department Head

  2. Olivia Chuba

    Administrative Assistant

  3. Mazie Harris

    Associate Curator

  4. Virginia Heckert

    Curator

  5. Miriam Katz

    Research Associate

  6. Arpad Kovacs

    Associate Curator

  7. Claire L'Heureux

    Curatorial Assistant

  8. Gabriela Macias

    Curatorial Assistant

  9. Paul Martineau

    Curator

  10. Carolyn Peter

    Assistant Curator

  11. Julieta Pestarino

    Assistant Curator