Photography - Highlights

It was not long after its invention in 1839 that photography made its way into the Städel Museum. In addition to reproductions of artworks from all over the world, the study collection amassed for the students of the art school affiliated with the museum also included cityscapes, everyday scenes, and landscapes. Over the course of the decades, photography developed, technically and otherwise. It is a medium with many faces: it is reproduction, documentation, staging, imprint, advertisement, art, and much more. Initially used to fulfil utilitarian purposes, it gradually became an art form in its own right that set—and continues to set—new aesthetic standards. Photography changed our visual habits fundamentally and has always had an impact on painting; the reverse is just as true. The Städel Museum photography collection mirrors this development. It is a dynamically growing area of the holdings that today encompasses more than five thousand works from the medium’s beginnings to the present.