Curator, Photographs

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The Met presents over 5,000 years of art from around the world for everyone to experience and enjoy. The Museum lives in two iconic sites in New York City—The Met Fifth Avenue and The Met Cloisters. Millions of people also take part in The Met experience online.

Since its founding in 1870, The Met has always aspired to be more than a treasury of rare and beautiful objects. We are committed to fostering a collaborative and respectful work environment with a staff as diverse as the audiences we engage. Our staff members are art lovers who are passionate about working toward a common goal: creating the most dynamic and inspiring art museum in the world.

At The Met, every staff member – from security officers to researchers to scientists and beyond – lives by our core values of respect, inclusivity, collaboration, excellence, and integrity.

The Department of Photographs at The Met is devoted to the study, collection, and exhibition of photography and time-based media from 1839 to the present. Established as an independent curatorial department in 1992, the Department of Photographs houses a collection of more than 90,000 works as well as the archives of three American artists:
Walker Evans, Diane Arbus, and James Van Der Zee. In 2025, the Department’s collection of late‑twentieth century and contemporary photography and time-based media was greatly expanded with the acquisition of The Walther Collection. The landmark gift comprises more than 6,500 photographs, including exceptionally important works from Africa and Asia, as well as related nineteenth and twentieth‑century vernacular photography.

As a Curator, you will have expertise in twentieth century and contemporary photography, as well as time-based media, particularly in Africa and Asia. You will act as a leader within the organization and cataloging of The Walther Collection, leading to a major exhibition planned for 2028. You will foster new research, scholarship, acquisitions, and exhibitions to enrich our understanding of still under-explored areas of global art‑making.

You will collaborate with other Curators, Conservators, Scientists, and Educators and act as an advocate within the wider curatorial field through the publication and presentation of your work within professional forums.

The Museum may recommend that a new hire be awarded credit for time worked in the same or similar role with comparable responsibilities as outlined in the Regulations for Curatorial, Education, Library, Conservation, and Scientific Research employees.

• Lead, organize, catalog, and fully research all the works in The Walther Collection, with an initial focus on those works selected for the 2028 exhibition;
• Present the art of these periods and regions within an international context, situating the artists and their work within the most pressing social, political, and aesthetic issues of their time;
• Manage the care and presentation of the collection, including potential provenance research, documentation, framing, and label writing;
• Propose art historical narratives, installations, and acquisitions that make this material come alive for audiences;
• Conduct archival research to identify new interpretative approaches to the related nineteenth‑century historical material in the collection;
• Communicate scholarly research in a variety of modes—written or through lectures or gallery talks that accommodate a variety of audience needs;
• Work collaboratively with multiple curatorial departments in the Museum, especially with ongoing…