The Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich is presenting a comprehensive exhibition featuring its extensive photographic holdings through "On View: Encounters with the Photographic." The exhibition, running until October 12, 2025, displays approximately 200 works by more than 60 artists spanning from the early 20th century to the present day. This expansive showcase traces the development of photographic collections at the Bavarian State Painting Collections since their establishment.

For the first time, the Collection of Photography and Time-Based Media and the Ann and Jürgen Wilde Foundation are collaborating to present milestones of artistic photography from their combined holdings of 20th and 21st-century works. The exhibition features both renowned masterpieces and recent acquisitions that have never been displayed publicly before, offering visitors opportunities to rediscover familiar works while making new artistic discoveries.

The foundation for this collection began when the Pinakothek der Moderne was established in 2002, marking the creation of a dedicated Department for Photography and Time-Based Media. This department actively incorporated photography as a medium within the museum's collections. The collection received significant enhancement through permanent loans from corporate collections, including Siemens in 2003 and Allianz in 2004, both focusing on photography from the 1970s onward.

A major expansion occurred in 2010 when the collection of gallery owners and collectors Ann and Jürgen Wilde became affiliated with the Bavarian State Painting Collections as a foundation. This partnership included the Karl Blossfeldt and Albert Renger-Patzsch artist archives, with emphasis on the modernist period. The combined holdings of both collections now comprise approximately 10,000 works, creating a comprehensive body that allows visitors to experience high-quality artistic photography with an international perspective.

The exhibition is organized around several thematic sections that highlight different approaches to photographic art. New Objectivity photography from the Ann and Jürgen Wilde Foundation and documentary conceptual photography by Bernd and Hilla Becher and their students from the Collection of Photography and Time-Based Media serve as focal points and provide an introductory opening to the exhibition. Additional themes explored include studies of detail, landscapes and wide expanses, fragments and space, examinations of the body and identity, and street photography and society.

The exhibition also presents pictorial concepts that address life experiences that are invisible or difficult to capture through traditional photography. These dialogical and often surprising encounters across different eras demonstrate photography's role as an art form that significantly influences visual perception and contemporary discourse.

Notable artists featured in the exhibition include internationally renowned photographers such as Ilit Azoulay, John Baldessari, Lewis Baltz, Bernd and Hilla Becher, Laurenz Berges, Aenne Biermann, Viktoria Binschtok, Karl Blossfeldt, Joachim Brohm, Thomas Demand, Ludwig Dressler, Juan Pablo Echeverri, Alfred Ehrhardt, Arno Fischer, Lee Friedlander, Katharina Gaenssler, Jochen Gerz, Ralph Gibson, Claus Goedicke, Jan Groover, Andreas Gursky, Florence Henri, Candida Höfer, Axel Hütte, Astrid Jahnsen, Sven Johne, Birgit Jürgenssen, Wolf Kahlen, Jens Klein, Germaine Krull, Marie Jo Lafontaine, Louise Lawler, Zoe Leonard, Duane Michals, Tracey Moffatt, Christopher Muller, Mame-Diarra Niang, Simone Nieweg, Nicholas Nixon, Gabriele and Helmut Nothhelfer, Walter Pfeiffer, Adrian Piper, Barbara Probst, Walid Raad, Albert Renger-Patzsch, Marcia Resnick, Werner Rohde, Ed Ruscha, Thomas Ruff, August Sander, Michael Schmidt, Eva-Maria Schön, Friedrich Seidenstücker, Paul Mpagi Sepuya, Stephen Shore, Beat Streuli, Thomas Struth, Vibeke Tandberg, Sam Taylor-Johnson, Wolfgang Tillmans, Lidwien van de Ven, Jeff Wall, Weegee, Gillian Wearing, and Petra Wunderlich.

The exhibition is curated by Simone Förster, Chief Curator of the Ann and Jürgen Wilde Foundation, and Franziska Kunze, Chief Curator of Photography and Time-Based Media. "On View: Encounters with the Photographic" is located at the Pinakothek der Moderne on Barer Street 40 in Munich, Germany, and will continue to showcase this remarkable collection of photographic art through October 2025.