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- The idea that we opened
the first new museum

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in four years in New York

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is not something you get say a lot.

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(futuristic electronic music)

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The Church Mission House lay dormant

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for the last four or five years,

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it wasn't really being used,

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and we had a landlord who
really understood our vision

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and was like, "well, let's do it here."

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The days of hanging art up on the wall

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and having that being enough are over.

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You have to provide
people a full experience

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and by that we mean, yes,

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we obviously show some of the
best photography in the world,

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but we want people to come
in and spend time with us.

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We have a lot of programming.

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We have stuff going on all day
with talks, with workshops,

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not just about photography,

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about art and about life
in the city in general.

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- We want people to feel warm and welcomed

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and like this is a place
where they can hang out

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and be free to enjoy the
photography, see amazing events,

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have a glass of wine,
walk around the galleries.

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We're open late.

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They can come after work.

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They don't have to rush.

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- When we started
Fotografiska 10 years ago,

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there was the advent of the smartphone

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and everyone said well, you know what,

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now photography's not gonna matter anymore

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because everybody has a camera

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and everybody's a photographer.

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And I think what's happened over time,

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it's actually gone in
the opposite direction.

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I think people have a
much higher appreciation

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for a good image,

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I think because they've
got tens of thousands

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of bad pictures on their own phone.

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It's gotten to a point

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that when you stand in
front of a great print,

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you immediately understand

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that it's not just a magic
combination of buttons.

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The artist has to have a view,

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they have to have an opinion,

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and they have to have a craft.

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- We really want to attract
a broad, diverse audience,

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so that means having many
different types of photography

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on display in the
building at the same time,

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everything from fashion commercial work,

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fine art conceptual work,
photo-documentary work.

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- We switch up an exhibition

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probably once every two or so weeks,

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so if we have five shows up,

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if you come back after a month and a half,

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it's largely an entirely new
museum that you get to see.

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- We choose most of the
artists by committee.

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We all submit different names and ideas,

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shows that we've seen,

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artists that we think are
great, and come together

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on what we think are
the best shows to tour.

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On our fourth floor,
we have Tawny Chatmon.

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Tawny is an amazing fine
art conceptual artist.

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She paints on top of her photographs.

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They're all unique.

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And her exhibition is really about

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re-imagining the museum space
for African-American children.

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- Just walking through a museum,

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we may see ourselves here and there

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or in a special area of the museum.

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I wanted the experience for black children

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and children to be different
from what they're used to

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when they go to a museum.

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- So I think usually when we
look at the world of museums,

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the best owned ones
are the big public ones

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that collect for posterity.

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And they take a 100, 150 year-long view

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on what's important and what
enters their collection.

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We're not a collecting
museum in that sense.

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We are a photo museum,

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which means we work with
a lot of living artists

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and a lot of contemporary work.

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And that provides us a platform

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where we can be super responsive

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to what's going on right now,

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so it's a really
incredibly timely platform.

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(hypnotic electronic music)