Peter Galassi first joined The Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1981 as a department of photography staff member, after interning in 1974 and 1975. He became chief curator in 1991.

In July, Galassi is set to retire "to devote time to writing and other projects," the Museum has announced. "Over the course of his long career at The Museum of Modern Art, Peter Galassi has applied passion, commitment, and exemplary scholarship to further our understanding of photography as an art form that is central to modern and contemporary art," says MoMA's director Glenn D. Lowry. "In addition to curating many important exhibitions and authoring publications, he has led the growth and transformation of MoMA's photography collection. The Museum is most grateful for those contributions, and we wish him all the best in the next phase of his career."

Galassi most recently organised a retrospective of Henri Cartier-Bresson - The Modern Century. It was also under his tenure that the museum acquired more than 1000 of Lee Friedlander's images, as well as the complete series of Cindy Sherman's Untitled Film Stills.

The museum will begin a search for a new chief curator of photography "in the coming months."

For more information, visit moma.org.