Photography Collection

The Morgan Library & Museum in New York has started to incorparate photographs in its 20th-century collections. So the institution has acquired 67 portraits of artists, writers and musicians by Irving Penn. “These are all figures who are represented in our collection,” said Charles E. Pierce Jr., director of the Morgan. He doesn't want to form a comprehensive photography collection, which he said would be not only expensive but also unnecessary in one of the US-capitals of photography collections at institutions like the Metropolitan Museum or the Museum of Modern Art.
Irving Penn has donated 35 of the portraits, the rest has been purchased directly from him. The photographs shall be exhibited e.g. together with literary manuscripts or other objects that fit them. “There are lots of interdisciplinary opportunities,” Pierce said. The Morgan plans an exhibition of the photographs for early 2008.