Since opening in 1996, the MEP remains the primary French institution dedicated to photography in all its forms. Our exhibition programme includes both internationally recognised and emerging photographers and film-makers, highlighting the diversity of artistic approaches to contemporary lens-based practices. Including a world-class collection of photographic prints and artists films from the post-war period, and one of the largest specialised research libraries in Europe, the MEP is without equal in Paris.
Every year the MEP welcomes a large audience, both domestic and international, of all ages and all levels of expertise. Our visitors not only experience our exhibitions, but attend events and screenings in the auditorium, take part in educational activities in our Ateliers, browse the wide choice of photobooks in our shop, and enjoy the courtyard café.
Conceived as a real home for photography that is open to all, the MEP represents a vision of the medium that reflects our times, in which photography has a central place in a rich and complex network of complementary practices: from fine art and film, to fashion, music, literature and performance. The MEP is concerned to show how and why photography is relevant today, not only in terms of the diversity of types of practice, but also in terms of representing, in the fullest sense, those practising photography today, whether in terms of gender, sexuality, ethnicity, geography or political engagement.
Firmly grounded in the past but, facing the future, the MEP is a historic space for photography in Paris with an ambitious and innovative approach. We are committed to showing the ways in which photography has evolved, and continues to evolve, in the very best of contemporary practices, and to show how and why it is a medium that fascinates as never before.