The High Museum of Art began collecting photographs in the early 1970s, making it among the earliest museums to commit to the medium.

With more than 8,500 prints, the Photography department comprises the Museum's largest collection. It is particularly strong in American modernist and documentary traditions from the mid-twentieth century and in contemporary trends.

The Photography collection maintains a strong base of pictures related to the American South. The High owns one of the largest collections of photographs of the civil rights movement and some of the country's strongest monographic collections of photographs by Eugene Atget, Wynn Bullock, Harry Callahan, William Christenberry, Walker Evans, Ilse Bing, Leonard Freed, Evelyn Hofer, Clarence John Laughlin, Abelardo Morell, and Peter Sekaer.