The Photography Collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Ella Ravilious, Curator of Design and Architecture at the V&A, gives an overview of some of the early photographs in the V&A and Royal Photographic Society collections, and the key photographers, curators, and exhibitions that brought them to light. Roger Fenton and others formed the Photographic Society (later the RPS) in 1853. That same year, the institution that would become the V&A began collecting and commissioning photographs. In 2017, the RPS collection was transferred to the V&A.