Selections from the Collection

Selections from the Collection features a rotating set of objects from the George Eastman Museum’s collections of photographs and related technologies. Within this exhibition, a conceptual thread is woven to connect these objects to the various lineages that exist throughout the history of photography. While certain works are characteristic of the visual currents that shaped specific art movements, others highlight familial legacies and the creative influences that have been passed on through teaching and mentorship. We seek to depict the field of photography as richly interdependent and reliant on community networks for its continued development and progress.

About the Collection 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 Collection 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 regularly, and each rotation offers new opportunities to engage with the museum's treasures.

For videos and a glossary of the photographic processes, visit eastman.org/processglossary