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Housed in a former customs house of the early twentieth century on the Sodermalm waterfront, Fotografiska has grown since its opening in 2010 into one of the world's leading centres for photography and a fixture of cultural life in Stockholm. The institution broke with the model of the traditional museum: it keeps no permanent collection and instead mounts a constant succession of large temporary exhibitions, devoting its spacious floors to the work of major photographers from Sweden and abroad and ranging across art, fashion, documentary and reportage. The formula struck a chord, drawing large audiences and leading the brand to open further outposts in other cities. The building's brick Art Nouveau exterior is a landmark for the ferries that pass beneath it, and inside the museum is known for more than its pictures, with a celebrated restaurant and bar on the upper floor whose windows frame a panorama across the harbour to the Old Town and the palace. A busy programme of talks, workshops and events, a well-regarded shop and late opening hours give the place an energetic, sociable character that sets it apart from quieter galleries and has helped make it one of the most visited attractions in the city. Working without a fixed collection, the museum is free to chase the most current and compelling work in the medium, and its galleries have shown many of the leading photographers of the age alongside rising names, embracing the full breadth of the art from documentary and photojournalism to portraiture, fashion and the conceptual. The exhibitions fill the upper floors of the building, a turreted brick customs house completed in 1906 whose distinctive outline is a familiar marker on the Sodermalm waterfront for the boats passing below. Its popularity in Stockholm gave rise to an international expansion, with sister institutions opening in other cities and lifting the name to global recognition. Yet the museum is as much a social hub as an art space: the top-floor restaurant and bar are widely admired both for their food and for the sweeping views they command over the harbour, the Old Town and the royal palace, and the long opening hours, regular talks, workshops and events draw a steady crowd well into the evening. This mixture of ambitious, ever-changing photography and a relaxed, contemporary atmosphere has secured Fotografiska's place among the best-loved and most-visited cultural destinations in the city.
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