The Louvre has opened an exhibition in which the museum stops being a backdrop and becomes the subject. Louvre Photo, on view in the Mezzanine Napoléon from 4 November 2026 to 3 May 2027, gathers more than 300 photographs made at the palace or of the palace, spanning the first decades of photography to the present day.

The display was put together by Dominique de Font-Réaulx, senior curator and adviser to the museum's president-director, and Quentin Bajac, director of the Jeu de Paume. Loans and contributions came from several French institutions, including the National Archives, the French National Library, the Musée d'Orsay and Paris Musées. The show forms part of the Ministry of Culture's programme marking two hundred years of photography, which runs from September 2026 to September 2027.

Its scope runs from early daguerreotypes to digital images, taking in photographs of the Grande Galerie, aerial views of the palace, empty galleries, wartime records, colour processes and areas of the building visitors rarely see. Staff at work, anonymous visitors and the Mona Lisa all appear, alongside projections, slide films and postcards that show how the image of the museum has been made and remade.

The connection goes back to photography's beginnings. Louis-Jacques Daguerre made a photograph showing the Louvre's Pavillon de Flore and the Seine in 1839, only a few years after the medium was announced. Two centuries on, the exhibition asks visitors to add their own pictures, inviting them to photograph the museum and share the results on Instagram under the hashtag LouvrePhoto.

Admission to the exhibition is included with a museum ticket, and the Louvre is at 99 Rue de Rivoli in the first arrondissement of Paris.