Marking the 25th anniversary of the Art Gallery of Ontario’s photography department, Collective States explores the museum’s rich history with the medium, the origins of its permanent photography collection, and the AGO’s evolving engagement with the art form. Focusing on the evolution of the act of collecting at the AGO since the department’s creation at the outset of the 21st century, this book includes the work of early innovators, 20th-century trailblazers, and contemporary artists, as well as significant collections of 20th-century press photographs, pop photographica, and photographic albums.

Featuring over 200 images in five thematic sections, Collective States blends works made across time and place to reveal the rich and versatile uses and approaches to the medium. With a diverse range of artworks, and insightful essays by the AGO’s current curator of photography, Sophie Hackett, and the department’s founding curator, Maia-Mari Sutnik, the book explores the indispensable role photography plays in contemporary visual culture and the advent of galleries, magazines, and festivals that explored the photographic form over the last 50 years.