Krannert Art Museum holds an impressive collection of approximately 5,000 works on paper, of which photography is a significant portion. The collection’s strengths—examples of more formalist photographic conventions—include works by Berenice Abbott, Arnold Crane, Walker Evans, Danny Lyon, Edward Weston, and Garry Winogrand. The collection has been built over time through the generosity of numerous donors and strategic purchases.
In the exhibition Collecting Photography, recent acquisitions from the past ten years give gallery visitors insight into Krannert Art Museum's current collecting efforts, as the museum actively acquires work by international artists who are interrogating social, political, and environmental concerns. It also highlights modern and contemporary artists who, rather than pursuing formalist approaches, have pushed against accepted conventions of photography, experimenting with a variety of techniques.
Featured artists include Zhao Bandi, Amy Barkow, Luke Batten, Harold Edgerton, Donna Ferrato, Bai Guanghua, Yu Haibo, Sam Jury, Annette Lemieux, Susan Rankaitis, Joel Ross, Tamen, Andy Warhol, and William Wegman.