The first transnational history of photography’s accommodation in the art museum Photography was long regarded as a “middlebrow” art by the art institution. Yet, at the turn of the millennium it became the hot, global art of our time. In this book—part institutional history, part account of shifting photographic theories and practices—Alexandra Moschovi tells the story of photography’s accommodation in and as contemporary art in the art museum. Archival research of key exhibitions and the contrasting collecting policies of MoMA, Tate, the Guggenheim, the V&A, and the Centre Pompidou offer new insights into how art as photography and photography as art have been collected and exhibited since the 1930s. Moschovi argues that this accommodation not only changed photography’s status in art, culture, and society, but also played a significant role in the rebranding of the art museum as a cultural and social site. Photography was long regarded as a “middlebrow” art by the art institution. Yet, at the turn of the millennium it became the hot, global art of our time. In this book—part institutional history, part account of shifting photographic theories and practices—Alexandra Moschovi tells the story of photography’s accommodation in and as contemporary art in the art museum. Archival research of key exhibitions and the contrasting collecting policies of MoMA, Tate, the Guggenheim, the V&A, and the Centre Pompidou offer new insights into how art as photography and photography as art have been collected and exhibited since the 1930s. Moschovi argues that this accommodation not only changed photography’s status in art, culture, and society, but also played a significant role in the rebranding of the art museum as a cultural and social site. Preface Acknowledgments Introduction A Foot in the Museum’s Door A Gust of Photo-Philia The Question of the Medium The Structure of the Book 1. Photography Itself What is “Camera Esthetics”? A “Universal” Language Photography Itself “More Than One Photography” New Stories of Modern Art Navigating an “Ocean of Images” 2. The Art(s) of Photography Art Education for “All Classes” A Collection for the Art of Photography Between Form and Function Toward the “Bigger Picture” Pluralism and Participation 3. Art as Photography, Photography as Art Art as Photography The Unique Original Copy Who’s Afraid of Contemporary Art? A Photo-Philic Turn Embracing the Vernacular Photographies and Histories Engaging New Audiences 4. Postmedia Pictures A “Postmedia” Collection in the Making A Global Museum Hybrid Images Accommodating the “Polymorphous” Photographic A New Poetics of the Photographic Image 5. Between Images Photography and the French State A Postmodern Museum A Collection for the Nation Episode 1: Plasticity and Hybridity Episode 2: Passages Between Media Episode 3: What is (Museum) Photography After All? Postscript Notes Bibliography