The historian of photography Helmut Gernsheim (1913–1995) owned the largest photography collection in the world. For the first time in half a century, both its sections are being reunited for an exhibition: the historical part housed in the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas in Austin and the contemporary collection in the Forum Internationale Photographie at the Reiss-Engelhorn-Museen. Among the major pieces in the collection is the world's first photographic image, taken by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce in 1826. With this treasure, Helmut Gernsheim not only restored to photography its earliest preserved work, but was also able to set the "official birth date" of photography, formerly tied to the invention of the daguerreotype in 1839, back to the year 1826. With roughly 220 outstanding photographic works, the exhibition and the accompanying catalog afford unprecedented insights into the matchless history of the Gernsheim Collection as well as a fascinating overview of the history of photography. In addition to numerous milestones in photojournalism, outstanding portrait artists are presented as well as the most important pro- tagonists of so-called Straight Photography / New Vision, along with historical and contemporary examples of artistic, experimental and staged photography.