The J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles has received gifts of nearly 500 pieces to its Department of Photographs since last year. The contributions came from more than 25 individual donors, including collectors, artists' estates and members of the Getty's Photographs Council.

The gifts included two photographs by Liu Zheng from his recent Peking Opera series, the first contemporary Chinese works to enter the Getty Museum's collection. The Getty has also augmented its already strong holdings of prints from Mexican photographers by adding works by Manuel Alvarez Bravo and Graciela Iturbide.

In addition, eight color photographs from 1995 by Carrie Mae Weems have been brought back to the Getty. Weems' work was originally part of a larger series commissioned by the Getty that commented on the historical visual representation of African Americans.

The Getty also added to its holdings of photojournalism prints with works by Alfred Eisenstaedt and Esther Bubley from the 1930s and 1940s. Eisenstaedt and Bubley were considered two of the best photojournalists working for Life and other magazines during the years before television.

In addition to these gifts, the Department of Photographs received more than 100 pieces of photographic equipment and cameras that span the history of the medium up through the 1980s. They will join just a few examples of equipment already in the collection.