Quentin Bajac

Quentin Bajac (born 1965) is a French museum curator and art historian specialising in the history of photography. He is currently the director of the Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume (National Gallery of the Real Tennis Court) in Paris.

Bajac has held positions at the Musée d'Orsay (1995–2003), Centre Georges Pompidou (2003–2010), Musée National d'Art Moderne and École du Louvre (2010–2013) and Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) (2013–2018).

He has published a number of works on photography, most notably the three-volume series——on the history of photography (2000–2010), which belongs to the collection Découvertes Gallimard, In 2010, he was appointed Head of the at the Musée National d'Art Moderne, and a professor at the École du Louvre. In January 2013, he was appointed The Joel and Anne Ehrenkranz Chief Curator of Photography at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City. Bajac remained in that post at MoMA until becoming director of the Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume in Paris in November 2018.

Bajac has curated various exhibitions on 19th-century and contemporary photography, in particular, he organised (1998), (1999), (2000), (2000), (2003), William Klein (2005), (2009), and (2012). As the chief curator of photography at MoMA, he organised A World of Its Own: Photographic Practices in the Studio (2014), Scenes for a New Heritage: Contemporary Art from the Collection (2015), and Stephen Shore (2018).

series L'image révélée : L'invention de la photographie, coll. « Découvertes Gallimard » (nº 414), série Arts. Paris: Gallimard, 2001 US edition – The Invention of Photography, "Abrams Discoveries" series. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 2002 UK edition – The Invention of Photography: The First Fifty Years, ‘New Horizons’ series. London: Thames & Hudson, 2002 La photographie : L'époque moderne 1880-1960, coll. « Découvertes Gallimard » (nº 473), série Arts. Paris: Gallimard, 2005 Après la photographie ? : De l'argentique à la révolution numérique, coll. « Découvertes Gallimard » (nº 559), série Arts. Paris: Gallimard, 2010

Publications L'ABCdaire du Musée d'Orsay, Flammarion, 1999 Tableaux vivants. Fantaisies photographiques victoriennes, 1840-1880, Réunion des Musées Nationaux, 1999 With Alain Sayag & Martine d'Astier, Lartigue : l'album d'une vie, 1894-1986, 2003 With Christian Caujolle, The Abrams Encyclopedia of Photography, Harry N. Abrams, 2004 With Clément Chéroux, Collection photographies : une histoire de la photographie à travers les collections du Centre Pompidou, Musée national d'art moderne, coédition Centre Pompidou/Steidl, 2007 With C. Chéroux, La subversion des images : surréalisme, photographie, film, Éd. du Centre Pompidou, 2009 Le corps en éclats, Éd. du Centre Pompidou, 2009 Miroslav Tichy, Éd. du Centre Pompidou, 2009 La photographie, du daguerréotype au numérique, coll. « Découvertes Gallimard Hors série ». Paris: Gallimard, 2010 Clément Chéroux ed., with Man Ray, Man Ray : Portraits : Paris - Hollywood - Paris, Éd. du Centre Pompidou, 2010 Man Ray: Portraits : Paris, Hollywood, Paris : from the Man Ray Archives of the Centre Pompidou, Prestel Pub, 2011 With Martin Parr, Le mélange des genres, Textuel, 2010 Parr by Parr: Quentin Bajac Meets Martin Parr : Discussions with a Promiscuous Photographer, Schilt, 2010 Mimmo Jodice. Les Yeux du Louvre, Paris/Arles, coéd. Musée du Louvre/Actes Sud, 2011 With , Brassaï, le flaneur nocturne, Gallimard, 2012 Robert Doisneau : « Pêcheur d'images », coll. « Découvertes Gallimard » (nº 581), série Arts. Paris: Gallimard, 2012 With Olivier Michelon, Being Modern: MoMA in Paris, Thames & Hudson, 2017 Stephen Shore: Solving Pictures, Thames & Hudson, 2017