SALEM, Mass. (AP) – Massachusetts museum has received a gift of more than 1,600 photographic works it says will enhance what is already one of the leading collections of Asian photography in the U.S. and Europe.
The gift to the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem comes from the Joy of Giving Something Foundation, known for its work that explores the intersection of photography and social issues.
The collection features the works of 123 artists, primarily of Chinese and Japanese descent or who worked in eastern Asia, from 1930 to the present day. The museum already has a roughly 5,000-piece collection of 19th-century photography.
“These photographs deepen our museum’s 220-year relationship with East Asian culture and offer a compelling complement to our historic collection of Asian photography,” Lynda Roscoe Hartigan, the museum’s deputy director, said in a statement.
Several iconic photographs by photojournalists Marc Riboud, H.S. Wong and Pulitzer Prize-winners Max Desfor and Huynh Cong Ut document the tumultuous history of Asia in the 20th century.
The museum plans a photo exhibition titled “China Through the Lens” in 2022.
“We are committed to using our wealth of photography to showcase and explore different ways of seeing the world,” associate curator Stephanie Tung said.
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AP-WF-02-23-20 2131GMT
