The photography collection at the Johnson Museum began with a bequest of forty-eights works from William P. Chapman, Class of 1895. These included predominantly Pictorialist photographers Alvin Langdon Coburn, Gertrude Käsebier, Clarence White, and Alfred Stieglitz. The photography collection has grown steadily and now numbers nearly six thousand works, representing the history of the photographic medium, from early examples by William Henry Talbot, Hill and Adamson, and Julia Margaret Cameron to the work of present-day photographers. In addition, we have in-depth collections of the work of Cornell graduate Margaret Bourke-White as well as Robert Frank, Berenice Abbott, Leon Levinstein, Ralph Meatyard, and William Klein. In 2012 the new Rona Hollander Citrin ’80 and Jeffrey Citrin Photography Center will open, providing new opportunities for the Museum to integrate the study of photography into Cornell's curriculum and to ensure that the collection is seen, studied, and taught to its maximum potential.

With a few examples of early work, the video collection mainly represents the Johnson’s recent engagement with the medium. The future Picket Family Gallery will provide a dedicated space for video and other time-based art.