Reykjavik Museum of Photography

Please put your hands together for Iceland's only autonomous photographic museum, the Reykjavik Museum of Photography. Boasting a collection of around 5 million photographs, the museum's role is to preserve photographs, glass plates, negatives and slides in such a way that locals and visitors in in Reykjavik have optimum access to the collection. The museum also collects and preserves Icelandic photographs that shed some light on the history of photography in Iceland. Additionally it seeks to acquire photographic archives reflecting photographic heritage and photographic material with relevance to Reykjavík. The museum's main objective is to present both historical and contemporary photography in an artistic, social and cultural context, as well as nurture public and scholarly interest in photography and its culture.

The collection's themes are diverse, you can find family photograpshs, photos from portrait studios, industrial- and advertising photographs, press photography, landscape photographs and more. The Reykjavík Museum of Photography seeks to collect photographs, objects and sources relating to the work of photographers, both professionals and amateurs. The museum also seeks to collect and preserve photographs, objects and sources from the general public like photo albums and other related items that reflect the home's photographic culture.

The museum holds around ten exhibitions each year on the sixth floor of Grófarhús. The objective of the exhibitions is to present photographs from the museum's own collection and historical and contemporary photography. Among photographers who have had their work on display at the exhibitions are Icelandic photographic pioneers such as Magnús Ólafsson, Guðmundur Ingólfsson and Leifur Þorsteinsson, alongside internationally known artists like Henri Cartier-Bresson, August Sander and Mary Ellen Mark. Admission to the museum is free so you have no reason not to visit.