
Photography
The photography collection of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco spans the entire history of the medium, with particular strength in nineteenth-century American and European photography. The de Young museum accepted photographs into its collection during its earliest years, starting with documentary scenes of the California Midwinter International Exposition of 1894. The collection also includes large concentrations of historical California photographs, with many views of the Bay Area as well as a significant holding of daguerreotype portraits.
The Legion of Honor also amassed historical photographs prior to merging with the de Young museum. The Legion’s most important acquisition was its purchase in 1943 of negatives and prints by Arnold Genthe representing San Francisco in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake of 1906. After the two institutions were combined to form the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco in 1972, the photography holdings were united at the Legion of Honor within the Museums’ department of works on paper, the Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts. Among the photographers represented in depth are Eadweard Muybridge, Imogen Cunningham, Arthur Siegel, John Gutmann, David Seymour (Chim), Bill Owens and Ed Ruscha.
Photography is intermittently displayed at both the de Young and the Legion of Honor.
Ansel Adams, 'Gottardo Piazzoni in His Studio,' 1932. Gelatin silver print, 7 x 9 in. Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Museum purchase, Pritzker Fund for Photography in memory of John E. Buchanan, Jr., 2012.5
Eadweard Muybridge, 'View from the Window of 605 O'Farrell Street, San Francisco,' from the album 'Home,' 1880. Albumen silver print, 7 x 9 in. Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Museum purchase, Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts Endowment Fund and the Jacqueline Roose Fund in honor of Robert Flynn Johnson, 2003.70.37
Arthur Tress, 'Untitled (Coit Tower) from the series San Francisco, 1964', 1964, printed 2010. Selenium-toned gelatin silver print. Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Gift of Steven Rifkin and Nicole Browning, 2011.27.51