--- description: Quentin Bajac, the new chief curator of photography at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, writes about his inaugural exhibition exploring the history of photography made within the four walls of the studio space. title: MoMA Celebrates Photographers Experimenting in the Studio image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0b46e20398b5a269/6987e56c55a8596b55a88f0d/moma_samaras_autopolaroid.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [World](/section/world/) ## World Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [LightBox](/tag/time-section-lightbox/) ## LightBox Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # MoMA Celebrates Photographers Experimenting in the Studio by [Quentin Bajac](/author/quentin-bajac/) ## Quentin Bajac Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Feb 12, 2014 9:00 AM CUT  Auto Polaroid, 1969-71 Auto Polaroid, 1969-71Lucas Samaras—Courtesy The Museum of Modern Art, New York by [Quentin Bajac](/author/quentin-bajac/) ## Quentin Bajac Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Feb 12, 2014 9:00 AM CUT _In January 2013, Quentin Bajac assumed the role of chief curator of photography at the Museum of Modern Art in New York following a 17-year tenure as curator at the Musée d’Orsay and the Centre Pompidou in Paris. He is the first non-American to hold what is widely considered one of the most influential positions in the photography world, succeeding just four others in the museum’s 83-year history — Peter Galassi, John Szarkowski, Edward Steichen and Beaumont Newhall. Here, he writes for LightBox about some of the motivation behind his inaugural exhibition at MoMA, opening February 8, 2014._ --- --- > “” --- Bringing together photographs, film, and videos, [**_A World of Its Own: Photographic Practices in the Studio_**](http://www.moma.org/visit/calendar/exhibitions/1430 "undefined") examines the ways in which photographers and other artists using photography have worked and experimented within the studio space, from photography’s inception to today. In this digital age in which a younger generation of photographers is going back to the studio, I felt it was important to acknowledge the role played by this space in photography’s history. Featuring both new acquisitions and works from the museum’s collection that have not been on view in recent years, the exhibition includes more than 150 images from the 19th century to the present. I wanted to bypass the traditional categories associated with studio photography (portrait, advertisement, fashion, nude, etc.) and instead consider, in six different sections, the photographer’s studio as an autonomous space, in all its diversity and, sometimes, contradictions. From a working space to a living space, from a sanctuary to a workshop, from a laboratory to a playground, from a haven to a stage, the studio has taken on varying identities that, for more than a century, photographers have recorded in strikingly creative ways. _A World of Its Own_ attempts to offer another history of photography — a photography created within the walls of the studio, as groundbreaking and inventive as its seemingly more extroverted counterpart, street photography. --- **_Quentin Bajac_** _is the chief curator of photography at the Museum of Modern Art in New York._ [**A World of Its Own: Photographic Practices in the Studio**](http://www.moma.org/visit/calendar/exhibitions/1430 "undefined")_,_ _is on view February 8 – October 5, 2014._ ---  Auto Polaroid, 1969-71 Lucas Samaras—Courtesy The Museum of Modern Art, New York  Laboratory of the Future, 1935 Man Ray—Courtesy The Museum of Modern Art, New York  Sundial (2007.13), 2007 Uta Barth—Courtesy The Museum of Modern Art, New York  Composite Photo of Two Messes on the Studio Floor, 1967 Bruce Nauman—Courtesy The Museum of Modern Art, New York ![The Working Desk \(The Artist's Desk\) \[Masa de lucru \(Masa atelierului\)\], 1971](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3352465c3dcdfa79/6987e5a63c1639f3df454e26/578_2013_cccr.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp) The Working Desk (The Artist's Desk) \[Masa de lucru (Masa atelierului)\], 1971 Geta Brătescu—Courtesy The Museum of Modern Art  Light Abstraction, c. 1925 Francis Bruguière—Courtesy The Museum of Modern Art, New York  Allover (Enesis, Travis Tritt, and others), 2008 Christian Marclay—Courtesy The Museum of Modern Art, New York  Self-Portrait in the Studio, c. 1920 Constantin Brancusi—Courtesy The Museum of Modern Art  Eleanor, 1948 Harry Callahan—Courtesy The Museum of Modern Art, New York  Food for the Spirit #2, 1971 Adrian Piper—Courtesy The Museum of Modern Art, New York  Untitled, 1929 Maurice Tabard—Courtesy The Museum of Modern Art, New York ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3806987/moma-celebrates-photographers-experimenting-in-the-studio/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3806987/moma-celebrates-photographers-experimenting-in-the-studio/"},"headline":"MoMA Celebrates Photographers Experimenting in the Studio","datePublished":"2014-02-12T09:00:03.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:40:32.433Z","description":"Quentin Bajac, the new chief curator of photography at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, writes about his inaugural exhibition exploring the history of photography made within the four walls of the studio space.","url":"https://time.com/3806987/moma-celebrates-photographers-experimenting-in-the-studio/","keywords":["LightBox","Out There","Museum of Modern Art"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0b46e20398b5a269/6987e56c55a8596b55a88f0d/moma_samaras_autopolaroid.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Quentin Bajac","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/quentin-bajac/"}],"articleSection":"World","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0b46e20398b5a269/6987e56c55a8596b55a88f0d/moma_samaras_autopolaroid.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Samaras, Lucas","caption":"Samaras, Lucas","creditText":"Lucas Samaras—Courtesy The Museum of Modern Art, New York","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-lightbox/","name":"LightBox"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3806987/moma-celebrates-photographers-experimenting-in-the-studio/","name":"MoMA Celebrates Photographers Experimenting in the Studio"}}]}] ```