V&A to create “world’s leading collection on the art of photography”

The Victoria and Albert museum has announced it is to acquire more than 400,000 objects from the the Science Museum Group’s collection at the National Media Museum. The photographs will be joined with the V&A’s existing 500,000 photograph collection, creating an International Photography Resource Centre.

The new facility will form the single largest collection on the art of photography in the world, according to the V&A.

The newly acquired images include works by British photographers William Henry Fox Talbot, Hill & Adamson, Roger Fenton and Julia Margaret Cameron among many vintage prints, the world’s first negative, daguerreotypes and early colour photographs. The collection will also host artefacts such as books, cameras and the archives of major photographers.