Sandra Phillips

During her tenure, Phillips organized and oversaw numerous landmark exhibitions, including major presentations of the work of Diane Arbus, Dorothea Lange, Helen Levitt, Garry Winogrand, Daido Moriyama, Shomei Tomatsu, and Larry Sultan. She also curated Ansel Adams at 100, Crossing the Frontier: Photographs of the Developing West from 1849 to the Present, Police Pictures: The Photograph as Evidence, and Exposed: Voyeurism, Surveillance, and the Camera Since 1870. Her work as a curator and scholar has helped broaden the understanding of photography as both an artistic medium and a vital record of social and cultural history.

Phillips has written extensively on photography and has contributed essays and scholarship to numerous books and exhibition catalogues. Her publications include writings on artists ranging from Diane Arbus and Martin Parr to Japanese photographers and American documentary traditions. She also co-curated the major 2003 exhibition Diane Arbus: Revelations at SFMOMA and curated the 2005 exhibition John Szarkowski: Photographs, which subsequently traveled nationally.

Phillips was appointed curator emerita in 2016, following her distinguished career at SFMOMA, and continues to contribute to the field through writing, scholarship, exhibitions, and other projects. Her influence on the collecting, interpretation, and presentation of photography has extended well beyond SFMOMA, and she remains an important figure in the history of photography and museum curation.