Photographs Curator

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About the Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Metropolitan Museum of Art collects, studies, conserves, and presents significant works of art across all times and cultures in order to connect people to creativity, knowledge, and ideas.

The Met presents over 5,000 years of art from around the world for everyone to experience and enjoy. The Museum lives in two iconic sites in New York City—The Met Fifth Avenue and The Met Cloisters. Since it was founded in 1870, The Met has always aspired to be more than a treasury of rare and beautiful objects. Every day, art comes alive in the Museum’s galleries and through its exhibitions and events, revealing both new ideas and unexpected connections across time and across cultures.

GENERAL STATEMENT OF RESPONSIBILITIES & DUTIES:

The Curator will be a full-time member of the curatorial team of the Department of Photographs, whose principal focus will be post-1960s photography and time-based media. The candidate will be responsible for performing all curatorial duties, including: researching, cataloging, studying, and publishing works in the collection under their curatorial responsibility; recommending acquisitions to complement the existing collection and the department’s library; proposing future exhibitions, installations, and publications; and maintaining positive and fruitful relations with colleagues in the museum and academic worlds, with Museum trustees and other supporters, and with dealers, auctioneers, and booksellers. The ideal candidate will be a well-published scholar familiar with the entire literature of photography and contemporary art, including knowledge of practices outside of North America and Europe, and possess a passionate interest in placing photography within a broader context, both academically and institutionally. The Curator will work on new opportunities to display and contextualize the permanent collection, improving it through gift and purchase, with particular attention to diversity and equity, and will support the Museum’s mission and public outreach. To perform these duties, the Curator brings to bear their own expertise while striving to develop an increasingly comprehensive understanding of the objects in the permanent collection.

PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITIES & DUTIES:

Assist with the cataloging, care, and interpretation of The Met’s permanent collection of photographs.
Plan and oversee regular rotations of the permanent collection in the Museum’s Menschel Hall for Modern Photographs, the Johnson Gallery, and the Gilman Gallery, including the selection of art works and the writing of labels and text panels.
Develop collection-based exhibitions across all media and museum departments.
Propose and organize special exhibitions and accompanying scholarly publications in collaboration with curatorial colleagues at The Met, nationally, and internationally.
Collaborate with members of The Met’s Watson Library on the acquisition of rare and important books and incunabula for the department’s Joyce F. Menschel Photography Library.
Consult with and assist the Department’s collections managers and the Museum’s conservators on the care of the collection.
Recommend important acquisitions.
Foster and maintain productive working relationships with donors, trustees, and colleagues from other institutions in the U.S. and abroad, with the scholarly community, dealers, auctioneers, collectors, and other individuals involved with the interests of the Museum.
Actively cultivate potential sponsors, including those in the departmental support groups.
Plan and execute programs for the department’s friends group (the Alfred Stieglitz Society), and for its Visiting Committee.
Collaborate regularly with colleagues throughout The Met.
Respond to correspondence related to the collection and assist the public and visiting scholars.
Contribute to the teaching mission of the Museum through public lectures, docent training, and mentorship of interns and fellows.
Other duties as assigned

REQUIREMENTS & QUALIFICATIONS:
Experience and Skills:

Thorough knowledge of the history of photography, time-based media, and contemporary art.
Minimum seven years curatorial experience required.
Demonstrated scholarly achievement and experience in accomplishing original research on contemporary photography and time-based media.
Established working relationships with donors, trustees, and colleagues from other institutions in the U.S. and abroad, with the scholarly community, and with other individuals involved with the interests of the Museum.
Ability to maintain precise and careful scholarly records.
Commitment to scholarship of the highest order.
Ability to work closely with all staff within the Department and with colleagues throughout the Museum.

Knowledge and Education:
Ph.D. in the History of Art with a specialization in Photography preferred.
Fluency in a second language.