From London to LACMA; A former Victoria & Albert curator is named to lead the photography department after teaching and writing in the Big Apple.: [HOME EDITION]

Charlotte Cotton, a British photography curator and writer who plunged into edgy contemporary projects after 12 years of curatorial work at the venerable Victoria & Albert Museum in London, has been appointed department head and curator of photography at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

She will join the museum's staff June 1, succeeding the late Robert A. Sobieszek and interim department head Tim B. Wride.

"Charlotte's career bridges the traditional and the contemporary. That is her real strength," said LACMA Director Michael Govan. "At the Victoria & Albert, she dealt with a collection of some 30,000 photographs that has great 19th century and early 20th century material, so she had a real grounding in a big museum collection and historic work. Then she gave it up to experiment and learn more about photography in the contemporary world. She has had huge experience, and she has taken risks. That's a good combination."

Cotton, 36, who was born in...