the Getty’s educational program is their publica-
tionIn Focus, an alternative form of catalogue for
many of their monographic exhibitions. The stan-
dard format is pocket-sized with over 100 pages
and consists of 50 images, artist’s chronology, and
transcriptions of round-table discussions that in-
clude important figures in photography. Among
the titles in this series areAndre ́Kerte ́sz(1994),
Alfred Stieglitz(1995),Euge`ne Atget(2000),August
Sander(2000), andDorothea Lange(2002).
In contrast to the museum, the Getty Research
Institute (GRI) for the History of Art and the
Humanities offers a collection that critically en-
gages the function and employment of photo-
graphy. Photography acquisitions in the Special
Collections and Visual Resources department are
also purchased from individual collectors, but the
agenda is shifted from a modernist approach to
interests in the vernacular. The collection is divided
into seven areas: Ritual, Performance, and Specta-
cle; Cross-Cultural Exchange; Processes of Con-
ception and Production; Visual Communication
and the Culture of Images; Art and Science; His-
tory of Collecting and Display; and Cultural and
Social Debates. Headed by Curator of Special Col-
lections, Frances Terpak, the divisions examine the
complexities of the nineteenth-century and photo-
graphy’s participation by examining the materials
of the period, which includes archival photographs,
rare books and albums, and mechanical devices.
The approach at GRI is interdisciplinary and
expansive.Framing the Asian Shore: Nineteenth-Cen-
tury Photographs of the Ottoman Empire(1998) was
composed from a purchase of 6,000 photographs
from French collector Pierre de Gigord. The exhibi-
tion contextualized the photographs in postcolonial-
ist terms, examining the Western image of the
Orient. Other materials that described Eurocentric
interests were included as well, such as maps, early
prints, ceramic tiles, and Romantic literature. Ex-
changes between scientific technology and visual
perception are growing aspects of the collection as
well.Devices of Wonder: From the World in a Box to
Images on a Screen(2001) connected visual enter-
tainment devices from the seventeenth-century
through to the twentieth-century and displayed
many of photography’s precursors such as a physio-
notrace, crank magic lanterns, and a portable cam-
era obscura. In addition to Western devices, the
department has increased holdings in Latin Ame-
rican photography. Purchases have resulted in a
two-part exhibition that traced Mexico’s revolution-
ary history through to its modernist era,Mexico:
From Empire to Revolution(2000). The exhibition
featured the work of Augustin Victor Casasola,
Manuel Ramos, and a series of documentary photo-
graphs that captured the historic shooting of
Emperor Maximilian, photographs that served as
E ́douard Manet’s inspiration for his realist painting
The Execution of Emperor Maximilian of Mexico
(1867). The collection of Mexican photography com-
plements the J. Paul Getty Museum in its large
holding of photographs by Manuel A ́lvarez Bravo,
whose work is often connected to both Mexico’s
documentary tradition, which stems from the Revo-
lution and to modernist and surrealist movements.
Since 1984, the museum has extended its collec-
tion to include practices since the 1930s and 1950s,
moving into the areas of Pop Art and color photo-
graphy.The Hidden Witness: African Americans in
Early Photography(1995) was an important exhibi-
tion in this respect. The objects drew from a recent
acquisition of Jackie Napoleon Wilson’s collection
of African American photography composed of
daguerreotypes, albumen prints, andcarte-de-vis-
itesfrom the Civil War era. Although the exhibition
featured nineteenth-century work, contemporary
artist Carrie Mae Weems was commissioned to cre-
ate a photographic installation that spiritually
responded toThe Hidden Witness. The collabora-
tion received wide acclaim and laid the ground-
work for later comparative exhibitions such as
Nadar/Warhol: Paris/New York(1999) andWilliam
Eggleston and the Color Tradition(1999).The Getty makes a difference by weaving together the
presentation, enjoyment, study, and conservation of the
visual arts in order to increase the public’s knowledge
and sensitivity, expand its awareness and creativity, shar-
pen its understanding and caring—all with the conviction
that cultural enlightenment and community involvement
in the arts can help leap to a more civil society.These last lines of the Getty’s mission statement
are a summation of institutional aims of the photo-
graphy collections at the Getty. Overall, the keys to
their collections are informational. At both institu-
tions, the departments offer study rooms, which are
available by appointment, to view the collections
and foster research. A grant program exists expli-
citly for this purpose. On another level, photogra-
phy is used in a conventional sense on the internet
through the Getty Center’s Photo Study Collection
Database, which represents a physical department
at GRI. Containing over 250,000 object entries, the
photographs document works in the collection
(Antiquities, Medieval, Decorative Arts, Sculpture,
Painting, and Prints) as well as donated and
acquired images by photographers of archaeologi-
cal sites and other humanities interests. Their web-
site,www.getty.eduunderscores their collections—aJ. PAUL GETTY MUSEUM