The V&A museum is to open a new photograph gallery in the autumn to showcase its extensive collection.

The permanent gallery will launch with an exhibition of works by the likes of Henri Cartier-Bresson, Man Ray, Diane Arbus and Irving Penn.

The gallery will chronicle the history of photography from its invention in 1839 up to the 1960s.

An image of Parliament Street in London, the V&A's oldest photograph, will also be housed in the new space.

Other works include Curtis Moffat's "camera-less" photograph of a dragonfly - created without the use of a camera around 1925 - and a 1957 scientific photograph of a coronet formed by a single drop of milk falling into liquid.

The display will be re-curated every 18 months. Temporary displays of more contemporary works will be shown in the Victoria and Albert's existing photo galleries.

There will also be two 'In Focus' sections, each featuring a photographer represented in the V&A collection.

The first will be dedicated to British photographer Julia Margaret Cameron, and the second to Cartier-Bresson.

The new gallery will open on 25 October at the museum, based in London's South Kensington.

Founded in 1852, the V&A was the first museum to collect photographs and the first to exhibit them.