The exhibition includes some of the most famous photographs ever taken, and a roll-call of the greatest photographers: Henri Cartier-Bresson, Man Ray, et al. The exhibition's poster features Theophile Feau's famous images of the Eiffel Tower in mid-construction. (Edouard Durandelle took a series of similar images, which were published in 1900.)
The earliest extant photographic image, an 1827 'heliograph' by Joseph Niepce (discovered by photographic historian Helmut Gernsheim) begins the exhibition. There is also an example of Etienne-Jules Marey's Chronophotographie. Photographs by several artists from other mediums are also included, such as a book cover by Marcel Duchamp and a portrait by Agnes Varda.