National Museum of Photography, Photography museum in Drummondville, Quebec, Canada
The Musée national de la photographie is a photography museum in Drummondville, Quebec, founded in 2003 by photographer and semiotician Jean Lauzon and open to the public since 2006. It holds more than 35,000 cameras of various eras and over half a million archival images in old and digital formats, largely from donations by collectors and photography professionals.
Founded in 2003 by photographer and semiotician Jean Lauzon, the museum opened to the public in 2006 as Quebec's first and only museum devoted exclusively to photography. Its holdings grew largely through donations, such as the Bruce and Bissera Anderson collection of 1,086 photographic objects given in November 2017 and Germain Beauchamp's more than 2,000 cameras and accessories given in January 2018. It is led by president Michel Doyon and director general Jonathan-Hugues Potvin.
The museum holds eleven works by San Damon, creator of Oniroscopism, grouped as "San Damon S.O.I." (Sophisme Oniroscopiste Introspectif) and valued at one million dollars, the most expensive work in the collection. Photographers represented in its holdings include Bernard Brault, Antoine Désilet, Jean-René Dufort, Lynda McCartney, Tina Modotti and Samian.
The museum opened to the public in 2006, three years after Jean Lauzon founded it in 2003. It is run by president Michel Doyon and director general Jonathan-Hugues Potvin. Visitors should allow time for both the camera collection and the archive images, which number over 35,000 cameras and more than half a million images.
The museum holds a selection of cameras from the very beginnings of photography, including models that work on the same basic principle as a camera obscura, with no electronic parts at all. Seeing them side by side with later equipment makes the speed of technological change feel concrete rather than abstract.
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