As head of the photographic collections heritage unit at the Musée du Quai Branly, Christine Barthe is in charge of the acquisition of both historical and contemporary photographs. She has curated several exhibitions including Nocturnes de Colombie, images contemporaines (2013) and Patagonie, images du bout du monde (2012) and contributed to the curation of Photoquai (2007-2011) at the Musée du Quai Branly.

An author of a number of articles including recently “Instabilities” in Contemporary Art Colombia, (2016, TransGlobe Publishing), she has also directed the publications Patagonie, images du bout du monde (2012) and Le Yucatán est ailleurs, expéditions photographiques (1857-1886) de Désiré Charnay (2007). With Xavier Barral she co-directed L’esprit des hommes de la Terre de Feu (2015) and co-curated the exhibition Martin Gusinde, L’esprit des hommes de la Terre de Feu (Arles 2015). She currently heads up research into the distribution of photography outside Europe during the first years of the medium’s history.