Museum of Contemporary Photography
The Museum of Contemporary Photography has been in operation since 2004, the year it opened, at Villa Ghirlanda, a 17th-century architectural complex with a large English-style park located in the historic center of Cinisello Balsamo, a few kilometers from Milan.
As the only public museum in Italy dedicated to contemporary photography, it is an institution active in the fields of conservation, cataloging, research, and outreach in photography, with a particular focus on ongoing technological transformations and the relationship between photography and other expressive disciplines.
The museum’s photographic collection comprises over 2 million photographic works—including black-and-white and color prints, slides, negatives, videos, and installations—by more than 1,000 Italian and international artists. Together, these images provide a significant cross-section of photography from the post-World War II era to the present, with a particular focus on developments in strictly contemporary photography—that is, from the 1970s to the present—and on the medium’s current evolution as it transitions from analog practices to digital solutions.
The photographic collections held by the Museum include works by Italian and foreign artists and originate from commissions, deposits, and donations.
In addition, the Museum houses the largest specialized library on photography in Italy and one of the largest in Europe, which today comprises 20,000 volumes and journals, acquired through purchases, exchanges with other institutions, and numerous donations from private individuals. The Museum operates in a national and international context, yet at the same time is deeply rooted in the metropolitan area where it is located, engaging in ongoing dialogue with the communities that live there.
Learn more about the Museum of Contemporary Photography.