Photographs & Video

The photography collection at the Johnson Museum began with a bequest of forty-eights works from William P. Chapman, Cornell 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 more than nine 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. The Rona Hollander Citrin ’80 and Jeffrey Citrin Photography Center opened in 2012, providing new opportunities for the Museum to integrate the study of photography into Cornell's curriculum and ensuring 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 Picket Family Gallery provides a dedicated space for video and other time-based art.

Photographs & Video

19th Century Photographs

20th Century Photographs

21st Century Photographs

Video