Merry Foresta

Scholar in Residence

Merry A. Foresta has served as the Director of the Smithsonian Photography Initiative since its inception in 2000. She joined the Smithsonian Institution in 1977 and was named the museum's first Curator of Photography in 1983. She later became the Senior Curator of Photography for the Smithsonian's International Art Museums Division. Foresta has curated more than fifty exhibitions, authored numerous catalog essays and articles, and built one of the world's premier collections of American photography. As the inaugural project of the Smithsonian Photography Initiative, Foresta authored At First Sight: Photography and the Smithsonian which featured a broad sampling of photographs from collections throughout the Institution. In 2007, she oversaw the launch of the Smithsonian's first interactive program devoted to photography at the Smithsonian. (www.photography.si.edu)