The FJJMA's photography collection celebrates the history of the medium. The collection was precociously begun in 1937, when Oscar Jacobson, the museum's director, acquired for the fledgling museum three photographs by Edward Weston. In 1942, Jacobson added to this nucleus two more photographs by Weston.

The period of most rapid growth for the photography collection was the 1970s and early 1980s, during the directorship of Sam Olkinetzky, with the particular guidance of Edwin J. "Jim" Deighton, then the museum's assistant director and, himself, a photographer. During this time, prices were affordable because the market for photography was still nascent, and important examples by major photographers from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries were acquired.

The collection has grown to almost thirteen hundred prints. Particular strengths include 26 vintage photographs by Berenice Abbott and 27 by W. Eugene Smith. Recently, the FJJMA Museum Association has given prints by Michael Kenna, while well-known photography collectors Richard and Ellen Sandor of Chicago have donated vintage works by Bill Brandt, Robert Capa, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Edward S. Curtis, André Kertész, W. Eugene Smith, and James VanDerZee, Garry Winogrand, and others.

Berenice Abbott New York at Night (Westside Looking North from the Upper Thirties)		Berenice Abbott Christopher Street Shop		Berenice Abbott Edward Hopper
Ansel Adams Aspens, New Mexico		Emilio Amero Fourteen Year Old Mother from Women of Tehuantepec		Eve Arnold London
Eugene Atget Street Paver		Lewis Baltz Pasadena		Thomas F. Barrow From the series Cancellations
Cecil Beaton Portrait		Felix Bonfils Temple of Jupiter, Baalbek, exterior side view		Bill Brandt Charlie Brown’s East End London Pub
Brassai (Gyula Halaz) Kiki and Her Accordion Player ...		Manuel Alvarez Bravo The Daydream		Marilyn Bridges Solstice Bird
Harry Callahan Weed against Sky, Detroit		Harry Callahan Eleanor, Chicago		Julia Margaret Cameron Sir John Herschel (from life)
Robert Capa Spanish Loyalist Falling Dead (Spanish CIvil War)		Robert Capa The Russian 1948 Question		Paul Caponigro Enchanted Mesa, Acoma, New Mexico
Paul Caponigro New Mexico Landscape		Henri Cartier-Bresson China		William Clift Sheep and Petroglyphs, Canyon de Muerto, Arizona
William Clift Snow, Sandia Foothills, New Mexico		Alvin Langdon Coburn The Bridge - Sunlight		Alvin Langdon Coburn Plate from the book London,
Van Deren Coke Homage to the Dada Constructivists		Linda Connor Tree and Vine, Massachusetts		G. P. Critcherson and J. L. Dunsmore A Nearer View of the Church
Imogen Cunningham Laura Andreson		Imogen Cunningham Morris Graves, Painter		Edward S. Curtis Red Bird Cheyenne
Edward S. Curtis Dancing into the Medicine Lodge		Edward S. Curtis The Vanishing Race		Judy Dater Consuelo Cloos
Judy Dater Ansel Adams		Baron Adolf de Meyer Still Life		Alfred and John Bool; Henry Dixion (printer) Oxford Arms, Warwick Lane, London
Harold Edgerton Pigeon Released		Alfred Eisenstaedt Field Trials		Alfred Eisenstaedt Pilgrim State Hospital
Peter Henry Emerson The Haunt of the Pike		Elliot Erwitt Venice, 1965 from A Portfolio of Ten Photographs		Elliot Erwitt New York, 1946 from A Portfolio of Ten Photographs
Walker Evans Sidewalk and Shopfront, New Orleans		Frederick H. Evans Ely Cathedral, a Fifteenth Century Doorway to North Choir		Frederick H. Evans Le Moyen Age Chateau Chevenan, Nevers
Andreas Feininger Times Square, '79		Tim Gidal Self Portrait with Friend		Mark Goodman Oklahoma Portrait
Kenneth Hielbron Roustabout		John K. Hillers Man with Tower Ruins		Lewis Hine Newspaper Girl, Connecticut
Lewis Hine Blind Man and Youthful Guide		Leopold Hugo California Stand of Eucalyptus		William Henry Jackson Rainbow Falls
Michael Kenna Ground Mist, St. Germain-en-Laye		Michael Kenna Silver Road, Versailles, France		Andre Kertész New York City, July 10, 1977
Andre Kertész Piet Mondrian, Paris		Heinrich Kuehn Portrait - Meine Mutter		Alma Lavenson From Balcony
Joel D. Levinson Untitled #50 from California Flea Market Series		David Levinthal Untitled from Wild West series, #2/5		Danny Lyon Guns are Passed to the Picket Tower
Nathan Lyons Untitled from Notations in Passing from American Roads porfolio		Mary Ellen Mark Untitled from Ward 81 series		Mary Ellen Mark Untitled from Miami Beach series
Mary Ellen Mark Idaho from Aryan Nation series		Maull and Polyblank Lord Colchester		Jerry McMillan Ed Ruscha Covered with Twelve of his Books
Ralph Eugene Meatyard Cranston Richie from Ralph Eugene Meatyard portfolio		Duane Michals Alice's Mirror		Barbara Morgan Martha Graham - Letter to the World
Nelson Mulnier H. Scott from Galerie Contemporaine		Gaspard Felix Tournachon Nadar H. Eugene Delacroix		Beaumont Newhall Charles Sheeler
Arnold Newman George Grosz		Ruth Orkin Robert Capa		Edward Ranney Bandelier, New Mexico
Edward Ranney Llano, New Mexico		August Sander The Boxers Hein Hesse and Paul Roderstein		Aaron Siskind The Tree #36, Martha's Vineyard
Sandy Skoglund Ladies with Ferns		W. Eugene Smith Untitled from New Mexican Documentary		W. Eugene Smith Child with Bomb from South Seas series
W. Eugene Smith Untitled from Pittsburgh series		Edward Steichen Rodin: Balzac Towards the Light Midnight		Edward Steichen Cheruit Gown (Marion Morehouse - Mrs. e. e. cummings)
Alfred Stieglitz The Hand of Man		Alfred Stieglitz Excavating New York		Paul Strand Woman and Baby Hildalgo from The Mexican Portfolio
Josef Sudek Coming of Autumn		Kozaburo Tamamura Untitled, c. 1875-80		Jerry Uelsmann Untitled, 1969
Jerry Uelsmann Japanese Temple with Floating Sphere		Doris Ulmann Corn Stalk Stacks		Doris Ulmann Mennonite Woman with Apples
Unknown Photographer Tintype Portrait		James Valentine London Bridge		James VanDerZee Dress Rehearsal #1
James VanDerZee New York City		James VanDerZee Cosmeticians		Adam Clark Vroman