PHOTOGRAPHY AND MUSEUMS: A CASE STUDY IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY FRANCE
ABSTRACT. In France, in nineteenth century, photography wasn’t considered an art and therefore it was impossible to show it in official artistic expositions like the Exposition des Beaux Arts, together with other art works, normally considered – on the opposite – as results of artistic genius. The organizational structure of photographic exhibition in France in nineteenth-century reflected a polarization between photography and art. The first photographic exhibition in which photography received a prestigious spot, alongside with the traditional arts such as painting or sculpture, was organized by James Craig Annan in collaboration with Alfred Stieglitz and exhibited in the rooms of New Art Gallery & Museum Building. It is probably not a coincidence that the break between European and American photographic Pictorialism was coming nearer: in 1902, after a valedictory speech in Camera Notes, Alfred Stieglitz organized in March of the same year the popular exhibition which brought together the artists of Photo Secession, a group to which is usually ascribed the origin of modern photographic art. In this report, we attempt to analyse the role of museum hierarchy in the process that gave birth to an idea of photography which was finally compatible with the aesthetic reflections on the concept of Art. The most common subject of investigation regarding the relationship between “photography” and “museum” is the influence of photography as reproduction instrument on museum. The focus of this discussion will primarily be the entrance of photography in museums as an art-work.