Revealing, Centre Pompidou's Photography Collection

Drawn from Centre Pompidou’s photography collection, this display brings together around 100 works by some 30 artists, both historical and contemporary. Many of them are recent ac quisitions. The display unfolds across three themes: Making the Image, To Infinity and Identities. Together, they offer a cross-cutting view of artistic practices rooted in photography, from the early 20th century to today.

About

From Nicéphore Niépce’s first experiments to today’s AI-generated images, photography has constantly reinvented itself. It has taken many forms: metal plates, glass, paper, projection, code. It evolves with each new technological and scientific advance. Conceived as a tribute to the invention of photography on its bicentenary, the exhibition brings together new acquisitions and works from the collection. These dialogues reveal how artists use photography to question and reinvent the medium itself.Photography records the transformations of society and helps preserve its memory. From the early 20th century onwards, it became widely accessible. Its rapid spread strengthe ned its place within artistic practice.

Many of the artists featured, such as Robert Cummings and Kunié Sugiura, are fascinated by how images are made. They experi ment with cameras, tools, and digital processes, often modifying or reinventing them. Their works question what reality is and how it can be altered. Others, including Timm Ulrichs, Din Q Lê, and Eileen Quinlan, focus on reproduction. They explore copying, du plication, and repetition. Their works reveal our fascination with images and our desire to possess reality through them. Photogra phy also plays a key role in shaping identity. Portraits and self- portraits are central to this. Artists like Martha Wilson, Andrzej Steinbach, and Sam Contis revisit these genres. Their works highlight the complex histories of representation, as well as the power and control embedded in images.

Centre Pompidou holds one of the world’s largest photography collections. It includes over 40,000 prints and 60,000 negatives, spanning from the early 20th century to today. The collection features major historical figures such as Man Ray, Brassaï, Constantin Brancusi, and László Moholy-Nagy. It also includes a wide range of contemporary and forward-looking works. Reflecting both the richness of the French scene and the vitality of the international one, this collection offers a unique overview of modern and contemporary photography in all its diversity