Today, the Institut pour la photographie announces the achievement of a decisive stage in its development, by welcoming three archive collections of major figures in the history of photography: Bettina Rheims, Jean-Louis Schoellkopf and Agnès Varda.
These first three collections reflect the diversity of the fields of activity of photography according to very distinct aesthetic approaches, and its technical evolution from film to digital. More generally, these archives constitute an important resource for the critical study of our society from the 1940s to the present day.
At the same time, the Institute’s library, open to the public free of charge, will become one of the ten world references for the history of photographic publishing thanks to a pledge of donation and the bequest of more than 25,000 works from a private collector.
This exceptional library, built up over 40 years, brings together monographic and thematic works and many artists’ books on an international scale, including a large section dedicated to Japanese photography. The diversity of approaches represented throughout the history of photographic publishing from the 19th century to today offers a vast field of exploration of the photographic book. The Institute will gradually welcome this fund in the form of annual donations which materialized in 2020 with more than 2,000 works.
A first presentation of these funds is planned during the third and final program of the Institute for Photography on the site before it closes for work in October 2021.
Institut pour la photographie
11 Rue de Thionville
59800 Lille, France
