Haven for Photographic Art

The House of Photographic Art is in San Juan Capistrano’s historic Forster mansion, which was built in 1910.

Director Maryanne Charis and her husband lived in the mansion for eight years, until 1998, when she decided to turn it into a museum.

Over the course of a year, she collected what is now the permanent collection, including work by Alfred Stieglitz and Edward Steichen, who early in the century fought to have photography accepted as an art. Contemporary work includes Arnold Newman’s portraits of Edward Hopper, Georgia O’Keeffe and Igor Stravinsky.

The museum’s primary mission, however, is to uncover talented photographers in Orange County and to showcase their work.