Pier 24 Photography Art Museum

Located on San Francisco’s Embarcadero, Pier 24 Photography offers a tranquil, contemplative setting for experiencing photographic art. The venue houses the permanent collection of the Pilara Foundation, which commits itself to the collection, preservation, and exhibition of photography. They aim to engage the community through exhibitions, publications, and public programs. Visitors, including the general public, academic institutions, and museum groups, are invited for self-guided tours lasting up to two hours. Pier 24 Photography is free and accessible by appointment from Monday through Friday.

The Diane Arbus retrospective, Revelations, organized by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in 2003, inspired the acquisition of the Pilara Foundation’s inaugural photograph—a portrait from Arbus’ potent and emotional Untitled series. This emotional intensity has guided subsequent additions to the collection, which now boasts over 4,000 works by international artists covering the history and global scope of the medium. Core to the collection are works from photographers first showcased in the seminal twentieth-century exhibitions: New Documents (1967) at the Museum of Modern Art and New Topographics (1975) at Eastman House. In recent times, they have focused on acquiring works from emerging photographers, thereby reflecting the evolving practices within the field of photography.

Since its public debut in 2010, Pier 24 Photography has curated eleven exhibitions. The inaugural display explored significant themes present in the collection, with rooms dedicated to portraiture, contemporary Bay Area photographers, historical San Francisco images, early American color photography, and works generated by the Farm Security Administration (FSA). This initial exhibition also featured complete portfolios by Diane Arbus, Larry Clark, Lee Friedlander, and Garry Winogrand. In many of the exhibitions that followed, these themes have been delved into with greater depth.