churches, may choose to have separate gallery space
for exhibitions that incorporate the gallery activity
with their otherwise daily business. Some indivi-
duals make use of their home to showcase photo-
graphy as a special occasion.
Less than twenty years after the arrival of the
home computer, telecommunications has mush-
roomed to impressive proportions and the resulting
explosion of web galleries devoted to photography
is phenomenal. In 0.26 seconds, a Google search for
‘‘Gallery Photography’’ produced 1,210,000 results.
This volume of activity is difficult to monitor, mea-
sure, or analyze as the virtual, immaterial terrain of
activity is everchanging with little to no lasting trace
of content. Web galleries allow people to look at
images, research photography, buy and sell photo-
graphs, advertise and promote photography, and
give technical and aesthetic training and instruction.
Calendar events such as community or state fairs,
festivals, symposiums, or conferences, can organ-
ize temporary galleries to exhibit photography.
The exhibitions may have a geographic signifi-
cance, showcase local authors or local imagery, or
have a thematic significance, such as AIDS, dogs,
or tornadoes.
Vanity galleries are galleries where the gallery
owner exhibits the owner’s work. These galleries
may be part of the artist’s studio or independent
spaces. Another form of the vanity gallery exists as
rented spaces, where the artist contracts for a spe-
cific time at a certain cost to utilize the gallery.
There are several historical antecedents that fore-
shadowed the evolution of photography galleries in
the twentieth century. In the nineteenth century,
science and technology fairs began to show arts
and crafts, and photography was from its inception
a part of such activities. Louis Daguerre made pub-
lic his photographic process in 1839 and that same
year a Daguerreotype was exhibited at the 12th
annual Fair of the American Institute in New
York City. Until early in the twentieth century,
the American Institute remained almost the only
institution to exhibit photography in New York
City, exhibiting works by Mathew Brady, Napo-
leon Sarony, and Edward Bierstadt. Some of these
fairs were annual events and eventually a need was
identified for a permanent exhibition space.
Also in the nineteenth century, some photogra-
phers used part of their studio as a gallery space,
sometimes becoming a local point of interest be-
yond the studio’s clientele. This practice served
both to attract customers and to establish the
photographer’s expertise. Some of these studio gal-
leries were extravagantly decorated and advertised
in grandiose words, such as Mathew Brady in 1853
advertising his studio as a ‘‘palace of art,’’ or
Charles D. Fredericks’studio description as a ‘‘Pho-
tographic Temple of Art.’’ In New York and Wash-
ington, D.C., Mathew Brady’s galleries were
successful business endeavors, but the principle
income came not from the exhibitions but from
the studio photography work.
Interestingly enough, one of the first galleries to
exhibit photography in the twentieth century also
exhibited paintings and sculpture. This was Alfred
Stieglitz’s creation of the Little Galleries of the
Photo-Secession, referred to as 291, the gallery
street number on Fifth Avenue. The Photo-Seces-
sionists included photographers such as Gertrude
Ka ̈sebier, F. Holland Day, and Clarence White. 291
was from the beginning a gallery space devoted to
the promotion of photography in relation to other
arts. Urged on by painter and photographer
Edward Steichen, Stieglitz and the Photo secession
began publishing a newsletter calledCameraworks
in 1903 and opened Gallery 291 in 1905. After a
year of showing photographs, the gallery began
exhibiting more European paintings and occasion-
ally Stieglitz’s own work until closing down in 1917
following a series of exhibitions including work by
the photographer Paul Strand. In 1921, Stieglitz
mounted a show of his own work in space borrowed
from the Anderson Galleries on Park Avenue were
he exhibited other art until 1929. He wanted the
space to provide a sense of community for artists
and structured it as a cooperative gallery, trying to
distance himself from the commodity aspect of
works of art. From 1929 until 1946, the year of his
death, Steiglitz exhibited art at An American Place
on Madison Avenue, mostly paintings and other
prints as well as his own photographs and those of
Paul Strand.
In 1931, Julien Levy opened the Levy gallery in
New York City with a retrospective exhibition of
American photography. The gallery had a difficult
time finding a market for photography and quickly
modified the gallery’s agenda to include a broader
range of artwork. Photographers who exhibited
at the Levy gallery included Berenice Abbott, Eu-
ge`ne Atget, Man Ray, Paul Outerbridge, and Hen-
ri Cartier-Bresson. The Bay Area’s Group f/64’s
cooperative gallery, which opened in 1933, was
dubbed ‘‘683’’ after its street address in a clear
reference and homage to Gallery 291.
In the 1940s and 1950s, more galleries dealing
with photography appeared in the United States
and in Europe but rarely did this cultural activity
prove lucrative. Some galleries organized exhibi-
tions around other activities that could generate
revenue, such as bookstores, coffee houses, orGALLERIES