The Photographic Society (later Royal Photographic Society) had the first dedicated gallery of photography, mooted in 1853 when the society was set up, and at its various locations in London was able to stage a series of shows, as well as its annual exhibition. A move to the Octagon in Bath in 1980 allowed more ambitious exhibitions, but this had to close in 2002.
In 1905 Alfred Stieglitz set up the Little Galleries of the Photo-Secession (later renamed Gallery 291) on Fifth Avenue, New York, not just for photography, but also for painting and sculpture, with monthly exhibitions organized by Stieglitz. A startlingly original way of promoting photography by curatorial sponsorship and exhibitions on a commercial marketing basis was perhaps inevitably American. However, it moved almost completely away from photography and closed in 1917. Stieglitz subsequently reopened with photography at the Intimate Gallery (1925), and then at An American Place (1929-46).
New York was the gallery hub, where the Julien Levy Gallery showed photography from 1931 until 1946 alongside its modern art, and from 1954 to 1961 Helen Gee's Limelight café and gallery had some 70 exhibitions of both modern and historical photography, mainly as one-man shows. The Image Gallery also had Weegee and Winogrand shows in 1960. But perhaps the key development was the opening of Lee Witkin's gallery of photography in 1969. From then to the 1970s commercial galleries expanded rapidly, particularly in SoHo.
Galleries have since opened in many cities, either as commercial operations, or, particularly in the UK and USA, as part of alternative cooperative photography centres such as the Friends of Photography (Carmel, then San Francisco), Lightwork (Syracuse), and Los Angeles and Houston Centres for Photography. Notable in the UK was the Half Moon Photography Workshop, founded in Bethnal Green, London, in 1973, with a more political agenda. Other European countries have also had such centres, such as Toulouse, Rotterdam, Athens, Graz, Tarragona, Milan, and Helsinki. In the Ginza district of Tokyo, galleries sponsored by the major Japanese camera manufacturers, and Leica, mount regular, usually weekly shows.
The first dedicated photography gallery in the UK was the Photographers' Gallery, founded by Sue Davies in London in 1971, which has been at the forefront of contemporary photography ever since. Britain has also benefited from a series of state-funded dedicated photography galleries since the 1980s—Cornerhouse (Manchester), Side (Newcastle), ffotogallery (Cardiff), Open Eye (Liverpool), Impressions (York), Site (Sheffield), and Waterside (Bristol).
There are now commercial photography galleries everywhere, each representing their stable of photographers. Generally they are unable to show large exhibitions, but one that has had great impact is the Saatchi Gallery (1985), London, showing contemporary photography since the late 1980s, and the controversial I am a Camera exhibition in 2001. Galleries now also form part of major dedicated photography centres and museums, such as the Museum of Photography, Film, and Television, Bradford, the Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris, and the International Center of Photography, New York.
— Robert Ashby
