National Photographic Archive, Photography archive in Temple Bar, Dublin, Ireland

The National Photographic Archive is a modern building in Meeting House Square that houses over 600,000 photographs and provides exhibition spaces and reading areas. The collection spans from the 1850s to the present day and records Irish society across many different aspects.

The National Photographic Archive opened in 1998 in Temple Bar, taking in the photographic collections of the National Library of Ireland. Its holdings begin with photographs from the 1850s and run to the present, documenting Irish society over more than a century. The building also provides a reading room and an exhibition gallery for these collections.

The collection reflects Irish life across different subjects: landscapes, studio portraits, political moments, and early travel photographs that capture how the nation changed over time. Walking through the gallery, you encounter images that show the everyday world of past generations.

The archive sits in Temple Bar, in Meeting House Square, and is reached on foot from Wellington Quay or by the Luas Red Line at Jervis. The reading room and the exhibition gallery are the two spaces open to visitors; the gallery shows exhibitions drawn from the National Library's photographs.

The building was designed by O'Donnell + Tuomey and combines specialized rooms such as darkrooms and photo studios with exhibition spaces. The architecture carefully considers how photographs need to be stored and used, making it as much a functional work of design as a place to view images.