Exhibition opens November 7, featuring works by Lotus Kang, Robert Mapplethorpe, Shelley Niro, Josef Sudek, Wolfgang Tillmans and Weegee
AGO is inviting the public to choose the final artwork; voting opens on ago.ca October 1
TORONTO —The AGO’s collection of photography contains multitudes – more than 70,000 objects from around the world, reflecting diverse perspectives, formats, materials and techniques. This fall, to mark its 25th anniversary, the Department celebrates its expansive holdings with a unique exhibition of 94 works, chosen by leading voices in Toronto’s photography community. The final selection will be determined by a public vote on ago.ca, launching October 1, 2025. Collective Visions: Celebrating 25 Years of Photography spans from the 1840s to the present, highlighting artists from Toronto and around the world and opens November 7, 2025.
Beginning with a significant work by American photographer Robert Frank, Collective Visions: Celebrating 25 Years of Photography is structured as an exquisite corpse game. A collaborative tool popularized by the Surrealist artists in the 1920s, this selection strategy makes the outcome uncertain until the very end, as each artwork is selected by a different person in response to the one that comes before.
Led by AGO Curator of Photography, Sophie Hackett, the exhibition’s collaborative approach to curating led to a dynamic and diverse of selection of works. “We didn’t know how the final exhibition would take shape when we set out to engage our community – the many artists, curators, collectors and scholars who helped the Department flourish over 25 years,” says Hackett. “Collectively, what they have created is a beautifully revealing portrait of photography at the AGO – a collection as expansive as the medium itself. Only in Toronto could images by Wolfgang Tillmans, Julia Margaret Cameron, and Shelley Niro come together with such poetic resonance.”
Artists featured in the exhibition include Barbara Astman, Harold Edgerton, Lee Friedlander, Gauri Gill, Candida Höfer, André Kertész, Arnaud Maggs, Robert Mapplethorpe, Katherine Mulherin, Cindy Sherman, Malick Sidibé, Ming Smith, Michael Snow, Wolfgang Tillmans, Jeff Wall, and Weegee, among others. Making its AGO debut as part of the exhibition is a soon to be acquired photographic collage by Shelley Niro, as well as recently acquired artwork by Tseng Kwong Chi, Peter Hujar, and Jake Peters.
Artworks are accompanied by a short response written by the selector. Selectors reflect the diverse community that – over the past 25 years – has helped the Department flourish and includes both local and international luminaries, among them Liz Johnson Artur, Claudia Beck, Stephen Bulger, Edward Burtynsky, Karen Carter, Chris Curreri, Deepali Dewan, Ydessa Hendeles, Parambir Keila, Olga Korper, Suzy Lake, Zun Lee, Ken Montague, Philip Monk, Scott Mullin, Anjli Patel, Paul Roth, Alan Schwartz, Sandra L. Simpson, and Muna Tseng.
For 25 years, the AGO Photography Department has inspired and engaged its audiences. Today, the Department is inviting those audiences to choose the final work in the exhibition. Responding to Shelley Niro’s Untitled (1991), a work selected by Hackett, the public will be invited to select from a short list of three. Voting launches online October 1 at ago.ca/ exhibitions/collective-visions-celebrating-25-years-photography, and the works will be on view in the Marvin Gelber Print & Drawing Study Centre as part of Open Door Wednesdays, on Oct. 1 and Nov. 5, from 1 p.m. to 8 p.m. Voting closes Wednesday, Nov. 5, at 8 p.m. and the work with the most votes will be revealed when the exhibition opens on Nov. 7, 2025.
On view in the Edmond G. Odette Family Gallery and Robert & Cheryl McEwen Gallery on Level 1, Collective Visions: Celebrating 25 Years of Photography at the AGO opens first to AGO Members on Nov 7, 2025, and to Annual Passholders and the public beginning Nov. 11, 2025. Admission is free for all Ontarians under 25, Indigenous Peoples, AGO Members, and Annual Passholders. For more details on how to book your tickets or to become a member or Annual Passholder, visit AGO.ca.
Programming Highlights:
Launching in December comes Collective States: Worlds of Photography at the AGO, a 224-page book published by the AGO with Goose Lane Editions. Featuring texts by Sophie Hackett, Maia-Mari Sutnik, Tal-Or Ben-Choreen, and Marina Dumont-Gauthier, Collective States is a thematic view into the AGO’s photography collection and charts the parallel development of the department, the Toronto photography scene, and global currents in image culture. Collective States will be available in December at shopAGO for $50.
Collective Visions: Celebrating 25 Years of Photography is organized by the Art Gallery of Ontario.
Generous Support
David W. Binet
Gale M. Kelly
Penny Rubinoff
The Schulich Foundation
Jack Weinbaum Family Foundation
George Yabu & Glenn Pushelberg
Anonymous
Contemporary programming at the AGO is generously supported by the Canada Council for the Arts
@AGOToronto | #SeeAGO
ABOUT THE AGO PHOTOGRAPHY DEPARTMENT
The Art Gallery of Ontario is dedicated to building a collection of photographs that reflects the artistic, historical, and social impact of the medium. With over 70,000 objects, the collection spans the history of photography from the 1840s to the present day.
Along with key works by renowned figures in the field, the holdings also include in-depth collections of work by such artists as Linnaeus Tripe, Robert Flaherty, Josef Sudek, Henryk Ross, Bert Hardy, Alfred Eisenstaedt, Harold Edgerton, Arnold Newman, Michel Lambeth, Diane Arbus, Garry Winogrand, Lee Friedlander, Peter Hujar, Graciela Iturbide, Suzy Lake, Tseng Kwong Chi, and Edward Burtynsky.
The collection also includes significant holdings of press photographs, pop photographica, and photographic albums that highlight the key roles photographs have played in our visual culture to relay events, act as keepsakes, and create visual narratives. Notable among these are albums from the First World War, assembled by soldiers, nurses, and survivors; snapshots from the Casa Susanna collection, offering a rare glimpse into the lives of cross-dressers in the 1950s and ’60s; instant prints from the Fade Resistance collection, chronicling Black life in the U.S. and Canada; and the Montgomery Collection of Caribbean Photographs, a visual record spanning the shifting landscapes and communities of 34 countries in the post-emancipation Caribbean region. The collection is also anchored by an ever-growing body of works by local artists, past and present, reflecting Toronto’s diverse and dynamic photographic communities.
The AGO regularly features exhibitions drawn from the collection, exploring the medium’s evolution and diverse uses.
ABOUT THE AGO
Located in Toronto, the Art Gallery of Ontario is one of the largest art museums in North America, attracting approximately one million visitors annually. The AGO Collection of more than 120,000 works of art ranges from cutting-edge contemporary art to significant works by Indigenous and Canadian artists and European masterpieces. The AGO presents wide-ranging exhibitions and programs, including solo exhibitions and acquisitions by diverse and underrepresented artists from around the world. The AGO is embarking on the seventh expansion it has undertaken since the museum was founded in 1900. When completed, the Dani Reiss Modern and Contemporary Gallery will increase exhibition space for the museum’s growing modern and contemporary collection. With its groundbreaking Annual Pass program, the AGO is one of the most affordable and accessible attractions in the GTA. Visit ago.ca to learn more.
The AGO is funded in part by the Ontario Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Gaming. Additional operating support is received from the City of Toronto, the Canada Council for the Arts, and generous contributions from AGO Members, donors, and private-sector partners.
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For images and more information, please contact:
Andrea-Jo Wilson | Manager, Public Relations
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Wendy So | Communications Officer
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