Photography has always been important to the National Music Camp, and photos exist from the earliest years of the Camp. Beginning in circa 1944, a concerted effort was made each year to fully document camp life. A professional photographer was on site throughout the season, taking high quality, usually staged, photographs. These consisted of group shots of each of the camper cabins, and numerous individual shots of campers and instructors. These photos were developed on-site in the campus darkroom.

The campers at NMC were divided into age groups called Junior, Intermediate and High School. There was also a University contingent from the University of Michigan for many years. The sequence of negatives reflects these divisions. Two other typical divisions are General camp photos and Post-camp photos. General photos are often simply of the High Schoolers who constituted the majority of the campers at NMC, but also include more generic and candid shots of camp life. Post-camp indicates that camp had concluded, and these photos document the routines associated with closing down the camp for the summer.

When the Arts Academy began in the 1962-63 school year, the tradition of photography was continued, and similar high-quality shots were taken of the students. Theses are generally all numbered sequentially, and not divided into the four classes of Freshman, Sophomore, etc. It was around this time that the 4 x 5 large format was supplemented, and then supplanted, by the 120 film medium format, approximately 2.25" x 2.25".