French Museum of Photography

With more than 25,000 objects, a million photographs, a library and a unique technical documentary collection, the French Museum of Photography brings together one of the most important collections internationally.
In 1960, two passionate amateurs, Jean and André Fage, opened an associative museum in Bièvres. For more than thirty years they brought together images and objects testifying to the history of photography.

The Departmental Council of Essonne welcomes you to a departmental museum approved "Museum of France" since 2003. The French Museum of Photography offers a temporary exhibitions program that allows to rotate the museum three funds: images, devices and documentation.

With an exceptional collection of nearly a million images, 25,000 materials, more than 50,000 printed documents (books, manuals, catalogs, magazines, posters, etc.), from 1839 to the present day, the French Museum Photography aims to tell the story and history of photography!

How were pictures taken in 1850, during the First World War or at the end of the 20th century? How were images disseminated at a time when we did not know yet how to reproduce them in books and newspapers? How did chemistry make them appear in the darkness of the laboratory, long before computers, printers and digital networks are invented? Why did we move from a complex craft to a flourishing industry and a universal practice? What is the use of billions of photos produced, reproduced, classified, preserved and sometimes forgotten or discarded?

Begin to answer these questions, and many others, by discovering surprising images, mysterious objects, amusing commercials... thanks to the museum, we try to understand our "civilization of the image", to form our critical eye, to discover the little stories that make up the great History of the image.