The modern museum is both the showcase of our culture- and its cluttered attic. In this series, Richard Ross examines this modern institution, focusing both on the display of art and artifacts for the public and on the phenomenon of the museum itself- as a place that reflects what we think is worth preserving, a place where exhibits teach us what we’re supposed to know.

The lush color photographs were taken in museums all over the world, from the British Museum in London to the Museum Nationale d’Histoire Naturelle in Paris to New York’s metropolitan Museum of Art.