In 1987 a group of people brought together through the “Parallaxi” society set up the first museum of photography in Thessaloniki. However, this endeavour did not fare as it should have done. In 1995 the Organization for Thessaloniki Cultural Capital 1997 founded the Museum of Photography, which has been an independent body since 1998. Since December 2001 the museum has been housed in Warehouse 1 in Thessaloniki harbour, the same building which houses the Cinema Museum.

The museum’s mission is to collect photographs, especially historical and artistic photographs of Greece, to organize exhibitions and events to show the museum’s collection, to join forces with other similar bodies and work together, and to publish books on photography.

The museum has 57 photographs and 700 negatives by the photographer Nelly, photographer Socrates Iordanides’ archive, with themes from fashion, news stories, cityscapes and such like from the 1950s, 60s and 70s, and is ready to go ahead with the purchase of the collection entitled “Picture and Image” (the work of 39 contemporary Greek photographers), the archive of photographer Giannis Stylianos and part of the collection entitled New Images.

Since 1999 the museum has collaborated with a host of Greek and international bodies to undertake the organization of “Photo Synkyria”, the country“s most important and longest-lasting photographic institution.