Tracing the history of photography, the museum offers special exhibits from crowd-pleasing animal themes to landscapes by Ansel Adams and avant-garde cell-phone photography. The museum shop is rather good too, with photography-themed gifts, Lomography camera sets, technical reads and books on still- and moving-picture greats like Gus Van Sant.
Craig Lovell/Eagle Visions Photography/Alamy
Museum of Photographic Arts
San Diego
Lonely Planet's must-see attractions
11 MILES
Built in the 1930s behind a wave-cutting seawall, La Jolla’s Children’s Pool was created as a family beach but has since been invaded by herds of seals…
11.01 MILES
This state-of-the-art aquarium is a wonderous underwater world home to 5000 fish. Visitors can watch sharks dart, kelp forests sway, and even meet a…
1.58 MILES
Next to the new Waterfront Park, this collection of 11 historic sailing ships, steam boats and submarines is easy to spot: just look for the 100ft-high…
1.67 MILES
This interactive children’s museum offers interactive art meant for kids. Installations are designed by artists, so tykes can learn principles of movement…
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13.63 MILES
For a glimpse at what a wall between neighbors really looks like, find your way to binational Friendship Park. On the Mexico side of the wall in Playas de…
Old Town San Diego State Historic Park
3.26 MILES
On the site of San Diego's first European settlement, Old Town consists of a cluster of restored or rebuilt historic 19th-century buildings filled with…
1.56 MILES
A couple blocks east of Petco Park, the city's recent landmark is a beauty. Crowned by a steel-and-mesh dome, the futuristic, nine-story library features…
10.79 MILES
Waves have carved a series of caves into the sandstone cliffs east of La Jolla Cove. The one below the Cave Store, a shop selling vintage curios, is 200…
Nearby San Diego attractions
1. San Diego Model Railroad Museum
Your (inner) four-year-old child will love this railroad museum; one of the largest indoor railroad museums in the world, it has some 27,000 sq ft of…
The Casa de Balboa has a fabled past. A Spanish renaissance-style structure was built in this very spot for Balboa's 1915 exposition. It burned down in…
0.02 MILES
The San Diego Historical Society operates this center, with permanent and temporary exhibitions on city history. Previous exhibitions have included the…
0.06 MILES
Designed using the simple principles of Japanese gardening, this well-maintained quiet garden includes flowers like the cherry blossom.
0.06 MILES
Don’t skip the Timken, home to a small but impressive collection of American and European paintings, including works by Rembrandt, Rubens, El Greco,…
0.08 MILES
An ornate reconstruction of a building to honor the 1915 Panama–California Exposition fair held in San Diego. It's not possible to go inside the building,…
0.08 MILES
Balboa Park is a 1200-acre space with 17 museums and cultural institutions, including key attractions San Diego History Center, San Diego Air & Space…
0.1 MILES
The Botanical Building looks lovely from El Prado, where you can see it reflected in the large lily pond that was used for hydrotherapy in WWII when the…