Photo Élysée

Photo Élysée, formerly known as Musée de l'Élysée, is a museum in Lausanne, Switzerland, entirely devoted to photography. It is a government-supported institution founded in 1985 by Charles-Henri Favrod. It was housed in an 18th-century mansion until October 2020.

The museum was temporarily closed from October 2020 until June 2022, as it was moving to a new building. The new building is designed by Portuguese architects Aires Mateus. It has merged with two other museums; the Cantonal Museum of Fine Arts and the Museum of Contemporary Design and Applied Arts.

Succeeding Tatyana Franck, Nathalie Herschdorfer has been in charge since June 2022.

Collection
The collection of more than 100,000 photographs covers the whole range of photographic history and technology from 19th century daguerreotypes to contemporary digital prints. Amongst others, it holds collections of works by Adolphe Braun, who worked at the court of Napoleon III, Gabriel Lippmann, Mario Giacomelli, Lucia Moholy, Gilles Caron and Pieter Hugo.

The entire collections of Ella Maillart and Nicolas Bouvier were bequeathed to the museum. In 2011 it acquired Charlie Chaplin's collection of around 10,000 photographs. The museum also holds the collection of Pierre Gilliard, tutor to the children of Emperor Nicholas II of Russia.

Distinction

 * 2016 : Lucies Awards, Spotlight Award

The Nuit des Images
Photo Elysée organizes the Nuit des Images at the end of June, which was held in the museum gardens until 2020.

Prix Elysée
Photo Elyése has been awarding the Prix Elysée since 2014.

Winners

 * 2015 : Martin Kollar, Provisional Arrangement
 * 2017 : Matthias Bruggmann, A haunted World where it never shows
 * 2019 : Luis Carlos Tovar, My Father's Garden
 * 2021 : Kurt Tong, Dear Franklin
 * 2023 : Debi Cornwall, Model citizens