About

The Photo Archive is an archive of physical photographs located at the Getty Library. It is a non-circulating collection available for on-site researchers. Approximately half of the collection is represented by descriptive, text-only records in an online database, and a select subset are digitized and available for online access.

The Photo Archive holds more than two million photographs of art and architecture from antiquity to the 1940s. It is a primary source not only for how people documented works of art over time, but also for understanding changes in art historical scholarship and teaching.

The extensive holdings also represent the history of photography itself, including processes, formats, studio and field practice, campaigns, photographers, commercial stock houses, and institutions. Of special importance are the photographic collections assembled by art historians. In addition, the photographs represent different perspectives: while some are purely documentary, others were produced for commercial reasons and take aesthetic liberties that provoke questions of authenticity.

Researchers can use these photographs to conduct a wide range of studies, including on the history of collecting (provenance, art market, connoisseurship), iconography, conservation, historiography, and the history of reproductions.