Clément Chéroux, currently chief curator of photography at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, has been appointed as senior curator of the department of photography at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA). He will take up the post in early 2017.

Taking over the work of previous curator Sandra Phillips, who built up the museum’s impressive photographic collection over a 30 year span, Chéroux enters SFMOMA’s photographic department at an exciting time of growth—which echoes the brand new multi-million expansion of the museum, which opened to the public in May.

The recently opened Pritzker Center of Photography adds a vast space for the exhibition of photography, highlighting SFMOMA’s role as America’s leading institution for the exhibition of this powerful, yet often underrepresented medium.

The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Courtesy of Josh Edelson/AFP/Getty Images.

The museum’s already massive photographic collection consists of more than 17,000 works, ranging from documentary to experimental, and is the largest collection in the US dedicated to the medium.

The Pritzker Center of Photography has recently received a major gift from collectors Lisa and John Pritzker, contributing 78 valuable works by 25 different artists, including big names like André Kertész, Vito Acconci, Paul Graham, and Philip Lorca di Corcia.

John and Lisa Pritzker. Photo Drew Altizer via Patrick McMullan.

Previous to joining the Centre Pompidou in 2007, Chéroux gave lectures about photography at various institutions including the University of Paris I, Panthéon-Sorbonne, University of Paris III, and the University of Lausanne.

He also worked as executive editor for French photography magazine Études Photographiques, published by the Société Française de Photographie, as well as published around 40 books and catalogs about the photographic medium.