George Eastman Museum

Founded in 1947, the George Eastman Museum is the world’s oldest photography museum and one of the largest film archives in the United States, located in Rochester, NY on the National Historic Landmark estate of entrepreneur and philanthropist George Eastman, the pioneer of popular photography. Its holdings comprise more than 400,000 photographs, 28,000 motion picture films, the world’s preeminent collection of photographic and cinematographic technology, one of the leading libraries of books related to photography and cinema, and extensive holdings of documents and other objects related to George Eastman.

Exhibits

Experience the photography exhibitions FloodZone: Anastasia Samoylova, Perspectives: Recent Gifts of Contemporary Art, and Selections from the Collection: War and Conflict; explore hands-on activities for all ages in the Discovery Room, and join us for the following events throughout the day—all for free:
o 10:30 a.m. & 2 p.m. Historic Mansion Tour
o 1 p.m. Gallery Tour

FloodZone: Anastasia Samoylova
Anastasia Samoylova’s photographs are deceptive, drawing us in with the promise of luxurious paradise then revealing a crumbling landscape that nature promises to reclaim. Yet this is what it is to live at the edge of climate change, as rising sea levels and hurricanes threaten the very spaces that are so prized. In her series FloodZone, Samoylova (American, b. Soviet Union, b. 1984) focuses on the southern United States, where the sought-after tropical climate drives the real estate market to continue to build upon land that is known to be slipping into the ocean.

Perspectives: Recent Gifts of Contemporary Art
Photography is often thought to truthfully depict what is put in front of the camera. But each choice that a photographer makes— subject, angle, framing—and the context in which we see the work affect our understanding of the image, the medium of photography, and the world around us. The works presented in Perspectives showcase different ways that photographers see, depict, or manipulate the concept of space. All of the works are recent gifts to the George Eastman Museum collection, which the museum actively expands through donations and purchases.

Selections from the Collection: War and Conflict
This rotation in the Collection Gallery ranges from the Crimean War (1853–56) to the War in Afghanistan (2001–21). The works challenge us to think critically about how photography documents and disseminates information about war, and how photographers’ approaches to recording war has shifted over time.

Participation in Museum Day is open to any tax-exempt or governmental museum or cultural venue on a voluntary basis. Smithsonian magazine encourages museum visitation, but is not responsible for and does not endorse the content of the participating museums and cultural venues, and does not subsidize museums that participate.