Photography: A Curatorial Focus at the Morgan Library & Museum

Joel Smith

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Joel Smith, Richard L. Menschel Curator at the Morgan Library & Museum, reflects on his role as that singular institution’s first specialist in photography. The Morgan’s photographic holdings, numbering some 2,000, include experimental 19th-century objects, contemporary artists’ books, folk-art constructions, amateur snapshots, and concentrations of work by artists such as Irving Penn, Peter Hujar, Harry Callahan, and Diane Arbus. Smith’s publications include Edward Steichen: The Early Years; Steinberg at the New Yorker; The Life and Death of Buildings: On Photography and Time; and Peter Hujar: Speed of Life.