MNICHOV - Museum of Photography (now the Photography Collection) at the Munich City Museum opened in 1963. With nearly one million photographs out of approximately three million items, it ranks among the leading collections in Europe. The collection covers everything from the beginnings of photography in the 1840s to today's digital images, with a special focus on the 19th century and the period up to the 1980s. Our collections are constantly expanding through the acquisition of contemporary photographic works.

The collection encompasses the entire history of photography, both as an artistic, narrative, and creative medium, and as an application in the fields of fashion, journalism, advertising, design, and science. It also includes private photographs (snapshots, photo albums) and popular souvenirs (photographic jewelry and ceramics). Among its more traditional genres are natural, urban, and industrial landscapes, portraits (individual and group portraits, nudes), photographs documenting historical events, artistic experiments, and still lifes. It also focuses on certain priority areas, such as travel photography, war photography, and artistic reproductions.

Main Program

Our photography collection is involved in all key activities of the museum: exhibitions, conservation, collecting, research, and communication. Given that the museum is undergoing extensive reconstruction, its regular program of temporary exhibitions will be moved to external spaces until further notice. Among our main activities are also conservation projects and the ongoing expansion of the collection, along with research and public dissemination of its content. This includes publishing books and providing digital access through our online collection (in German only) and partner photographic databases, including Bildarchiv Preußischer Kulturbesitz (Visual Archive of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation) and Deutsche Fotothek. Our new research website called Reframing the Collection addresses methodological questions arising from our work and places a large number of previously unexplored objects in context.

Reframing the Collection

In 2024, the photography collection founded Reframing the Collection, a research website that addresses methodological questions arising from our work, seeks to delve deeper into the past of our photographers, and also provides contextual information about a large number of previously neglected objects. It is managed by researchers of the "Curators of Museums for Photography" program of the Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach Foundation.

Stipends

"Curators of Museums for Photography" Stipend Program of the Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach Foundation

The Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach Foundation has awarded the "Curators of Museums for Photography" stipend program since 2000. It offers specialized museum education for emerging photography curators in three photographic collections in German-speaking countries. Stipendiaries have the opportunity to complete six-month internships at the Munich City Museum, the Museum Folkwang in Essen, and the Fotomuseum Winterthur in Switzerland. Since 2010, the stipends also include a final six-month foreign internship at the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles, the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, or the Centre Pompidou in Paris. The stipend amounts to 60,000 euros and is awarded every two years.

Artists on Photography: Project Stipend for Art-Science Collaboration

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The photographic collection offers a scholarship for the period of the museum's renovation. This initiative aims to enrich the museum's historical collections by presenting contemporary perspectives from artists and academics in the fields of gender theory and postcolonialism. The scholarship will be awarded annually for a period of five years. Each year, artists and researchers will be invited to consider a specific collection through an open call. Based on this, the selected artist will create a new work. Simultaneously, a researcher will explore the historical collections. The result of this collaboration will be a publication and an exhibition after the museum reopens. The project for 2027 is made possible by the Alexandra Tutsek Foundation.

The application process for the scholarship for travel and souvenir albums for 2026 is now closed.

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