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 was determined by a public vote on ago.ca. Collective Visions: Celebrating 25 Years of Photography spans from the 1840s to the present, highlighting artists from Toronto and around the world and opened 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.

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.