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French Museum of Photography

The French Museum of Photography is home to over 25,000 artefacts, one million photographs, a library, and a one-of-a-kind technical document archive, making it one of the largest collections in the world.

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Description

Back in 1960, Jean and André Fage – two passionate photography fans – opened this community-run museum in Bièvres to the southwest of Paris, carefully curating their collection of images and artefacts there for over thirty years.

A vast collection of photographs

With an exceptional collection of nearly a million photos, 25,000 apparatus and almost 50,000 printed documents (including books, manuals, catalogues, journals and posters) dating from 1839 to the present day, the French Museum of Photography has made it its mission to tell the story of photography from start to finish!

How did people take photos in 1850, during World War One, and at the end of the 20th century? How did they share them back when we still didn’t know how to print them in books and magazines? What was the chemistry that made them emerge in the darkness of a lab, well before computers, printers, and digital networks were invented? How has photography, once a complex craft, become a booming industry and an activity almost anyone can enjoy? What use are the billions of photos that we print, file, store and maybe even forget or throw out?

These are just some of the questions that the museum will be answering for you, with its selection of surprising photos, strange objects, funny adverts and more giving us an insight into our photography culture and helping us become critical thinkers.

The French Museum of Photography has a calendar of temporary exhibitions alternating between its three key areas of focus: photos, apparatus, and documents.

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Community facilities

Access and contact

78 rue de Paris
91570 Bièvres

    Days and opening hours

    Warning, this place is temporarily closed

    Prices

    • Free

    Facility

    • Toilets
    • Public WC
    • Exhibition space
    • Car park
    • Defibrillator
    • Entertainments room
    • Film room
    • Meeting room
    • Free car park

    Services

    • Educational visits
    • Booking obligatory
    • Shop
    • Booking of general amenities
    • Tour free of charge
    • Guided tours
    • Leisure Center

    Activities

    • Activity
    • Children's entertainment
    • Temporary exhibition
    • Handicrafts workshops

    Tour

    Spoken languages

    • French

    Guided tour languages

    • French

    Documentation languages (home)

    • French

    Bulletin board languages

    • French

    Single mean time tour

    60 mins

    Single services tour

    • Unguided individual tours on request
    • Guided individual tours on request
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    Accessibility

    • Hearing disability
    • Mental disability

    78 rue de Paris
    91570 Bièvres

    • Copyright image:
    • B. Fernandez - Conseil départemental de l'Essonne - Musée français de la Photographie