Pier 24 Photography facts for kids

Pier 24 Photography is a special art museum in San Francisco, California. It's located right on the water, under the huge San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge. This museum is a non-profit, which means it's not trying to make money. Instead, it focuses on collecting, saving, and showing amazing photographs.

Pier 24 Photography is home to the Pilara Foundation's permanent collection of photos. They put on exciting exhibitions, create books about photography, and offer programs for the public. It's actually the biggest place in the world dedicated only to showing photographs!

The Photo Collection

The Pilara Foundation has collected over 4,000 photographs! Their collection started after they saw a famous photo show called Revelations by Diane Arbus in 2003. They bought their first photo from her "Untitled" series.

The collection includes photos from all over the world and from different times in history. Many of the core photos come from artists first shown in two very important exhibitions: New Documents (1967) and New Topographics (1975). In recent years, the Foundation has also started collecting works from newer photographers. This shows how photography keeps changing and growing.

Helping Others Through Art

In May 2023, a famous auction house called Sotheby's held a special sale in New York. It was called "Pier 24 Photography from the Pilara Family Foundation Sold to Benefit Charitable Organizations."

The Pilara Foundation plans to change its focus in July 2025. They will become a foundation that gives money to support important causes. These causes include healthcare research, education, and the arts. All the money raised from this auction will go directly to help these critical programs and research.

Some of the famous photos sold at this auction included:

• A large print of Migrant Mother by Dorothea Lange from the 1940s. It sold for $609,000!
• Lee Friedlander's The Little Screens, a set of 52 signed photos, sold for $609,600.
• Hiroshi Sugimoto's 1999 photo The Music Lesson went for $508,000.
• Robert Frank's 1955 photo Charleston S. C. sold for $952,500.
• Juan Patricio Lobato, Carney, Rocky Ford, Colorado, August 23, 1980 by Richard Avedon sold for $444,500.

Past Exhibitions

Pier 24 Photography has hosted many interesting photo exhibitions since it opened. Here are some of them:

• Pier 24: The Inaugural Exhibition (March 2010 – June 2010)
• From the Collection of Randi and Bob Fisher (September 2010 – February 2011)
• Here. (May 2011 – January 2012)
• About Face (May 2012 – April 2013)
• A Sense of Place (July 2013 – May 2014)
• Secondhand (August 2014 – May 2015)
• The Whiteness of the Whale (August 2015 – February 2016)
• Collected (May 2016 – January 2017)
• The Grain of the Present (April 2017 – March 2018)
• This Land (June 2018 - March 2019)
• Looking Back: Ten Years of Pier 24 Photography (July 2019 - April 2020)

Larry Sultan Visiting Artist Program

The Larry Sultan Visiting Artist Program is a special project that brings famous artists to San Francisco. It's a team effort between Pier 24 Photography, California College of the Arts, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. The program honors Larry Sultan, who was an important photographer and teacher in the Bay Area.

Each year, six international artists visit San Francisco through this program. They give free talks that anyone can attend. They also work with art students at the California College of the Arts, helping them with their projects and taking them on field trips around the city.

Visiting Artists

Larry Sultan Photography Award

In 2016, Pier 24 Photography helped create the Larry Sultan Photography Award. They worked with California College of the Arts, Headlands Center for the Arts, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

This award helps talented photographers. It includes a special stay (called a residency) for six to ten weeks at the Headlands Center for the Arts in Sausalito, California. The artist also receives a $10,000 cash prize.

Recipients

• 2016: Marco Breuer
• 2017: Awoiska van der Molen
• 2018: Bieke Depoorter
• 2019: Jonathan Calm

The Building's History

Pier 24 Photography is located in a building called the Pier 24 annex. It's just south of the San Francisco Ferry Building on the Port of San Francisco. This annex was built between 1935 and 1936. It was originally a large shed, about 28,000 square feet, used for loading cargo onto trucks.

The main Pier 24 was built even earlier, between 1912 and 1916. Over the years, many different businesses used the Pier 24 annex. They stored all sorts of goods there, like sugar, vanilla, whale oil, and animal hides. Sadly, the main Pier 24 was destroyed by a fire in 1997. Its last parts were removed in 2004, but the Pier 24 annex, where the museum is now, stayed standing.