The Maison Européenne de la Photographie is a major centre for contemporary photographic art. A completely new kind of cultural establishment, it houses 15,000 sq.ft of exhibition space, a large library, a video viewing facility with a wide selection of films by or about photographers, and an auditorium. It is designed to make the three fundamental photographic media—exhibition prints, the printed page, and film—easily accessible to all.

The third-floor galleries house the permanent collection of the Maison Européenne de la Photographie. Established in the early eighties, it consists of over 15,000 works and is representative of international photography from the end of the 1950s to the present day. The acquisition of several complete series of photographs—including Robert Frank’s ‘Les Américains’, Josef Koudela’s ‘Prague 1968’ and Raymond Depardon’s ‘Correspondance new-yorkaise’—has made it possible to organize coherent monographic exhibitions. The Polaroid Company of Boston has placed 1500 original Polaroid prints in trust of the centre, and an entire gallery is devoted to the works of Irving Penn, one of the greatest photographers of the second half of the twentieth century.