International Photography Hall of Fame and Museum

3415 Olive Street, 

St. Louis, MO 63103

314-535-1999

Admission is $5 adults: $3 for Seniors and students; street parking is $1/hr.

www.iphf.org

Moved to St. Louis in 2013. 

The International Photography Hall of Fame and Museum has been in the Grand Center Arts District of St. Louis City since 2013. This is the only international hall of fame for photographers in the entire world. 

The museum is owned by the Photographic Art and Science Foundation which was founded in 1965.  B 1977 the foundation had a large enough collection of photographs and cameras to establish an exhibit/museum.  In their 40-year history they have had three locations. 

Twelve local universities with photography departments and twenty local high schools that teach photography were both drawing cards for the foundation to move its collection to St. Louis five years ago. So were two local photography clubs a draw, one of which is the second largest in the world.  
Here they have 6000 square feet of  gallery and exhibition space.

The museum exhibits three kinds of photo collections: their own collection; traveling exhibits from other institutions or collectors; and the exhibit that follows each annual induction of members into the Hall of Fame. Their own collection includes over 30,000 photographs that are preserved in a cave near Jefferson Barracks. We visited the museum during the three-month annual display of the Hall of Fame inductees. 

There were 9 photographers inducted in November 2017 and each was asked to contribute a few photos for display such as the display below for Ernest H. Brooks, internationally known for his underwater photography.

Australian Anne Geddes was one of the more well-known names among us women.

She chose to display Jack and the Triplets, 1999. 

Polish-born Ryszard Horowitz as an infant became one of the youngest known survivors of Auschwitz.  He went on to be a pioneer in multi-image special effects photography. 

Appolonia, 1985, as most all his work, pre-dates digital imaging. 

American William Eggleston was a pioneer in color photography. In 1976 his work was featured in a solo exhibition in the first major presentation of color photography at The Museum of Modern Art, NYC.

He published several books of photographs such as this one on display. 

The museum continually runs a film of an interview of Eggleston as he went about his work photographing everyday life. 

Edward Curtis, the only deceased member of the inducted group, took over 40,000 photographs of Native Americans during a thirty-year time span beginning in 1899. 

Honovi-Walpi Snake Priest, with Totokya Day Painting, 1921, was among his work that was re-discovered in the 1970's.  

American Jerry Uelsmann is credited as a leader in photo montage with his work heavily displayed throughout the country.  

Untitled, 1982, is an example of his composite photographs.

American James Nachtwey has photographed wars around the world and critical social issues in the hopes of bringing public awareness leading to change and peace. 

This Mother and Son was photographed in 2004 in the Sudan. 

American Cindy Sherman is considered one of the most influential artists of her generation. 

Untitled Film Still, 1979, is one of her "eloquent and provocative photographs." 

Harry Benson, native of Scotland, came to the USA with the Beatles on their first tour here and he never looked back as he developed a highly successful career in magazines.

He photographed the last twelve U.S. Presidents for Life magazine as seen in this collage. He was under contract with Life for 30 years. 

I love this photograph of Nancy and Ron - President and Mrs. Reagan, the White House, 1985. 

Singer and songwriter Kenny Rogers includes photography of a variety of subjects among his many talents.  He was honored with the 2017 Lifetime Achievement Award.

Among the celebrities that he has photographed is this fellow musician seen in Michael Jackson and Bubbles, 1998. 

A corner of one gallery is dedicated to former inductees into the Hall of Fame. More than 70 photography inventors, pioneers, and artists have been inducted. Twenty-four of them are highlighted in this display. 

Englishman Frederick Scott Archer was the inventor of the first practical photographic process to be both sharp and easily reproducible. He began using photography in 1847. 

American George Eastman started taking pictures in 1874.  By 1888 he had invented the first film-loaded camera making picture-taking a possibility for everyone. The same year he named his company Kodak. 

American Ansel Adams was passionate about photography and wilderness conservation. 

The cameras of Swedish Victor Hasselblad have been so well loved that NASA commissioned him to create the first space camera and many space model cameras to follow. 

There is a special exhibit of the eight 2016 inductees. 

Graham Nash, of Crosby, Stills and Nash fame, was inducted last year because of his great contributions to digital printing.  His Nash Editions company developed the IRIS printer. 

Steve Jobs who co-founded Apple, contributed much to the photography field with his biggest contribution being the IPhone. 

Filmmaker Ken Burns was recognized for "his style of using archival photographs, panning across and zooming in on them to create a sense of motion that engages viewers."

The 2016 Lifetime Achievement Award went to Ken Whitmire, a professional photographer who really captured the West. He spearheaded the mounting of RC paper prints on canvas. 

The museum has over 5000 cameras and artifacts that highlight the development of photography.  A number are on display. 

This is the oldest camera currently on display, a Henry Clay Folding Camera from the 1890's. 

This is a Century Grand, 1901-1908. 

This camera comes from Japan, an Asanuma View Camera, 1949. 

These are two German lenses from the mid 1900's. 

This camera was exhibited by the display for the underwater photographer inducted this year.  It is a Nikon from 1959. 

The Megalethoscope is a large and elaborate stereoptical viewer for photographic prints.  It was invented by Swiss Carlo Ponti in 1861 and is the largest and oldest artifact currently on display. 

One display case has exhibits of chemicals and other equipment from earlier days of photography. 

A large screen in one gallery continually shows photographers of note and their work. 

Like all good museums, this one has a gift shop.  The store mostly sells books. 

The gift shop does have other camera-related items such as this jewelry. 

For lunch we went to The Fountain on Locust just a few blocks away.  There are many restaurants around the museum but we are glad we chose this one! 

The building dates back to 1916 when it was originally constructed to be a car showroom. 

This is their adult grilled cheese sandwich with Stutz Salad. 

Their Signature soup is their Polish Dill Pickle Soup which is seen here in a Pick Two with a Fountain Cuban. 

And finally the French Onion Roast Beef Melt with the St. Louis City Salad. 

This fine restaurant is mostly known for its cocktails and wonderful ice cream creations.  The five of us shared this wonderful concoction called Three Coins in a Fountain. 

Comments: We really enjoyed this museum.  We also understand that if we were to go again that there would be a completely different exhibit there.  In February a traveling exhibit is coming and the one we saw this week will go away for good.  Based on what we saw, I feel fairly confident that the whatever is there will be interesting and will be displayed well. A visit to their website gives you the current and next exhibitions. 

The only frustrating part for me was the challenge in taking photos of the works which were all covered with glass.  Glare created a huge problem and unfortunately distorted some of my photos.

The museum is only open four days a week. We went on a Wednesday when they opened at 11:00 a.m. and we were the only ones there.  However we learned that they often have school groups there touring the museum so a call ahead would probably be a good suggestion.  

The museum is on the second floor of the building and they do offer an elevator to get to it.  

The woman working there was very helpful and informative. 

The restaurant was great.  The food was delicious and the servers very helpful.  If you go for lunch I recommend you get reservations.  We were glad that we did. We didn't try the cocktails but hear they are worth the trip.  The ice cream definitely was.  The food was all very good, too.