Photographs

News and stories about photographs in Getty’s collections and exhibitions

Featured

The Man Who Photographed Ghosts

A black and white photograph of a man sitting in a chair with a "ghost" behind him.

Ghost photographer William H. Mumler duped the rich, profited, and got sued

The Personal, Political Photography of Ishiuchi Miyako

A young Japanese woman and man sit together, facing the camera, in a small apartment.

A rare photographic view into women’s history in post-war Japan

Capturing the Feeling of the Ocean on Paper

How an artist-scientist uses cyanotypes to inspire a love of marine life

Latest

  1. Lights, Camera, Fashion

    A person in a stylish suit looks at a book of photographs.

    As a curator of photographs at the Getty Museum, Paul Martineau often explores his passion for fashion photography

    Jul 8, 2025

  2. Photography in the Time of Covid

    A house entryway with wide plank bleached wood floors, white walls, white doors, and two giant fake-looking planted plants that touch the ceiling on either side of the area where the entry opens out.

    Five years after the Covid-19 pandemic started, a rotation of photographs at the Getty Museum reflects on a time when the world shut down, but new ways of seeing emerged

    Jul 1, 2025

  3. New Volume Explores Ed Ruscha’s Streets of Los Angeles Archive

    Ed Ruscha’s Streets of Los Angeles book cover

    Containing over 900,000 images, the artist’s archive is emblematic of his oeuvre

    Jun 30, 2025

  4. And Now for the Female Gaze

    A close up, black and white, and softly lit photo of two girls kissing

    Cynthia MacAdams’s photographs show us what a freer future looks like

    Jun 26, 2025

  5. Makers' Marks

    A signature painted in the corner of a painting hung with an ornate frame is camouflaged by the subject matter

    Getty curators explore the meaning behind artists’ signatures—those flamboyant, modest, or provocatively hidden final flourishes

    Jun 18, 2025

  6. Queer Lens: A History of Photography Celebrates Two Centuries of LGBTQ+ History, People, and Culture

    Gay activists embracing at the first Gay Pride Parade in New York.

    Getty doubles the love

    Jun 11, 2025

  7. Finding Their Voice Behind the Lens

    A teenage girl shows off a negative of a picture.

    Getty’s María Magdalena Campos-Pons exhibition inspires the next generation of artists

    Jun 10, 2025

  8. Buscando sus voces detrás de la lente

    A teenage girl shows off a negative of a picture.

    La exposición María Magdalena Campos-Pons de Getty inspira a la próxima generación de artistas

    Jun 10, 2025

  9. Double the Love Playlist

    A person stands behind a table with a mixer on top of it. He has one hand in the air. There's a gold curtain behind him

    DJ Bradley John honors Getty’s new exhibitions Queer Lens: A History of Photography and $3 Bill: Evidence of Queer Lives with house music favorites

    Jun 4, 2025

  10. A Summer of Queer Creativity

    Two sailor men kiss in front of a docked military boat, while people celebrate from the dock with signs, banners, and flags

    Two exhibitions celebrate LGBTQ+ art and photography

    May 20, 2025