The opening of the Louvre in 1793 preceded the birth of photography by a few decades. The museum, which combines real and imaginary and allows travel in time and space, has been a fertile cradle of inspiration for the first inventors of photography.
The project of this new exhibition focuses on the Louvre as a model, as a subject, as a source of inspiration, as an object of diversion. It will present photographs taken at the Louvre as well as photographs of the Louvre, its works, its exhibition rooms, its open spaces, but also famous and anonymous visitors, museum actors, hidden places, behind the scenes.

Several projects to create a museum of photography at the Louvre were considered as early as the 1850s, but remained without follow-up.

The first photographers understood the potential of this new technology that allowed them to represent works of art and prove their virtuosity, thus making photography recognized as an art form in itself. Several of them, such as Charles Marville, sought to become the official photographer of the Louvre. It was not until 1883 that a commercial agreement was signed between the Louvre and the firm of Braun et Cie, already famous for its numerous reproductions of works of art.
The Louvre very quickly became a subject and a photographic motif. Its architecture, spaces, collections and gardens were represented, reproduced, enhanced and diverted from the first decades of the invention. They thus form a shared photographic reality and imaginary, where popular culture appropriates the museum, sometimes overlaying established knowledge.

Photograph at the Louvre, photograph the Louvre.
Louvre Photo will cover the long period that has elapsed since the invention of photography until now, from the first photographers to those today invited by the museum, such as Robert Polidori recently.

This period was marked by major historical events such as the Commune, the First and Second World Wars, and the diplomatic and tourist development of the Thirty Glorious. It was also marked by key moments in the history of the museum, such as the transformation of the palace into a museum under the Second Empire, the movement and return of works during the two world wars, and the creation of the Grand Louvre in the 1980s.

We will also discuss the presence in the Louvre of celebrities of their time, festive and social events, fashion shows and film shoots.

By being part of a unit of place - that delimited by the walls of the building and by the gates of its gardens, in particular the Tuileries - the exhibition will associate all the photographic techniques, from daguerreotype to digital images. She will focus on showing artists' prints such as reproduction elements, projections, slides, postcards. Its unfolding will choose a thematic axis, served by a specific scenography, alternating angles and viewing modes.

Louvre Photo will highlight the photographic collections held at the Louvre within the various collections departments, documentary funds still active, as well as the collections of French institutions, notably the National Archives, the Médiathèque de la Photographie et du Patrimoine, the National Library of France, the Musée d'Orsay, the Carnavalet Museum, the Historical Library of the City of Paris.
The exhibition will highlight the commissions given to photographers by the Louvre since the early 2000s. It will be accompanied by an unpublished book, original in its form as in its concept, published by the Louvre and Editions La Martinière, designed by the young creators of the Atelier Pierre/Pierre.
A study day will be organized by the Louvre and the German Center for the History of Art at the end of January 2027, questioning photography in the museum, models and counter-models.

Throughout the exhibition, visitors and museum staff will be invited to send their photographs of the Louvre (buildings, collections, galleries, backstage). The exhibition will be the subject of a program of activities and mediation at the Studio.
Louvre Photo will invite to discovery and revelation, inviting to pose renewed, distanced glances, sometimes not without humor or shift, on the museum, the institution and its collections.
Police Station
Dominique de Font-Réaulx, general curator, in charge of the mission to the President and Director of the Musée du Louvre.
Quentin Bajac, director of the Jeu de Paume.
The scenography is signed by Juan-Felipe Alarcon and the graphic design by Atelier Pierre/Pierre.
This exhibition is supported by Visa Infinite.