The Centre Culturel Irlandais (CCI) in Paris inaugurated Portrait d’un collectionneur irlandais on Thursday 12 November 2026, an exhibition of photographs from the collection of Dr David Kronn. According to the centre’s invitation, the show brings together no fewer than 160 works by 55 classic and contemporary photographers, Irish and international. It opens to the public on 13 November and runs until 20 December 2026; admission is free.
The exhibition is presented as part of the PhotoSaintGermain festival and in collaboration with the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA), to which Dr Kronn has promised his collection. It is curated by Christina Kennedy of IMMA and supported by Culture Ireland. IMMA’s 2026 programme announcement describes a Paris presentation of selected works from the Kronn collection, opening on 13 November under the title Ireland in the world: ongoing dialogues and timed to coincide with Ireland’s EU Presidency and Paris Photo ’26.
A collection as a portrait of its owner
Dr Kronn is a geneticist originally from Dublin who began collecting photographs in New York in the early 1990s, according to the CCI. The collection, which the centre puts at about 1,200 works, grew from classic twentieth-century photography to include artists who had recently gained international recognition. His stated aim is to build an internationally renowned photography collection at IMMA, within Ireland’s national collections. IMMA has shown parts of it in Dublin since 2011; an exhibition there from 28 October 2024 to 26 January 2025 presented 130 works from the donated collection, according to the museum’s announcement.
The Paris show takes the collection itself as its subject: a portrait of the collector’s thinking, with portraiture understood broadly. The CCI says it explores connections between cultures through traditions, rituals, myths and landscapes, and questions aspects of contemporary social life and diversity. Among the photographers it names, as “some” of those in the collection, are Evelyn Hofer, Graciela Iturbide, Daido Moriyama, Malick Sidibé, Zanele Muholi, Pieter Hugo, Doug DuBois, Tomoko Sawada and Ursula Schulz-Dornburg, together with the Irish photographers Alice Maher, Anna Rackard, Amelia Stein, Paul Seawright, Donovan Wylie, David Farrell and Conor Horgan.
In the rooms on opening night
At the entrance, the exhibition title runs along a grey wall above two framed black-and-white portraits. Beyond it, the rooms are hung with framed prints on dark grey walls, and a long glass display case holds photobooks and prints, among them Inis Meáin 1973–2023 and Akihiko Okamura’s The Memories of Others. Our photographs from the evening show the rooms filled with visitors.
The vernissage ran from 17:30 to 21:00. At 18:00, Dr Kronn and Christina Kennedy held a public conversation, and at 20:00 a DJ set by Marion Hawkes took place in the centre. Food was served by the Burger Boss food truck and the centre’s médiathèque stayed open all evening, according to the CCI. The exhibition Gulliver 300 is also on view in the centre’s Bibliothèque patrimoniale.
Practical information: Portrait d’un collectionneur irlandais, Centre Culturel Irlandais, 5 rue des Irlandais, 75005 Paris. 13 November – 20 December 2026. Open daily 14:00–18:00, Wednesdays 14:00–20:00, according to the centre’s website; check it before visiting. Free admission.
Sources: CCI exhibition page; CCI opening-night page; PhotoSaintGermain 2026 calendar; IMMA 2026 programme announcement; e-flux announcement of the IMMA exhibition of the Kronn collection, 2024–25. Photographs: Kasra Aliha.
This article was prepared with AI assistance and reviewed by the Honargardi editorial team.