V&A Museum to create largest photography space in UK

V&A to open Phase Two of the museum’s Photography Centre in May 2023, creating largest permanent space dedicated to photography in the UK

The Victoria & Albert Museum is to open the largest space in the UK for a permanent photography collection, due to open in May 2023.

Image: Tarrah Krajnak, ‘Self Portrait as Walking Woman with Bag, 1979 Lima, Peru2019 Los Angeles, CA’, from the series ‘1979 Contact Negatives’, 2019–22. © Tarrah Krajnak

Phase One of the museum’s Photography Centre opened in 2018, with three galleries. May 2023 sees the completion of the second and final phase of the Photography Centre with an additional four galleries.

The V&A has collected and exhibited photography since the founding of the museum in the 1850s, and today its collection is one of the largest and most varied in the world. Photography Centre will become the largest space in the UK for a permanent photography collection, and the seven will showcase the museum’s world-leading holdings and enable visitors to experience photography and its diverse histories in new ways.

Two of the new rooms will showcase global contemporary photography and cutting-edge commissions in rotating displays. The other new spaces – a room dedicated to photography and an interactive gallery about the history and use of the camera – will shine a light on the processes involved in photography, as well as the study and presentation medium.

Image: Naoya Hatakeyama, ‘Blast #5707’, 1998. Museum no. E.4-2003 © Naoya Hatakeyama

These new rooms join the three existing galleries, with two galleries for changing displays from the collection and a space dedicated to digital media, which will also present new content. Location: V&A South Kensington, Cromwell Road,London,SW7 2RL