Nearly every collection of photographs contains unidentified images. This anonymity happens when initial owners don’t label photographs, or subsequent owners forget vital information or don’t record it. And without identities, entire albums and boxes of anonymous photographs wind up at yard sales, antiques shops, flea markets and online marketplaces. For their part, museums often acquire anonymous images as part of larger donated or purchased collections. And sometimes museum record keeping – especially in decades past – doesn’t retain information about photographs known at the time of acquisition.

Found@LIM is an opportunity to look at orphaned images for which few, if any details are known. Because of this status, they’re often passed over for exhibitions and rarely attract the interest of researchers. But found photographs are a source of inspiration for artists, are sought by collectors for their interesting compositions and subject matter, and invite audiences to try and guess the tantalizing stories behind the photographer and the subject.