The museum already had a worthy collection of photography dating back almost to the beginning of the medium.

But the curator wanted more, wanted something from the name but not necessarily the stuff that made the photographer famous.

So Charlie Stainback, assistant director of the Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach, caught a flight to New York and spent the better part of a day combing through thousands of digital images in the studio archive of Annie Leibovitz.

He could have easily selected from the high-wattage side of the catalogue — something pop culturally powerful like a pregnant and naked Demi Moore or Whoopi Goldberg in a milk bath or Roseanne Barr and Tom Arnold mud-wrestling — but he was looking for something quieter. He wanted photos that revealed as much about Leibovitz as the subjects on the other side of the lens.

“It was a back and forth process of making the photo selections. But I didn’t want the obvious stuff,” he says. “I wanted photos that were devoid of the theatrics, just a photographer and her subject and what the camera can do.”

The contemplation and collaboration resulted in Norton acquiring a collection of 39 works by Leibovitz, 63, that are on display through June 9.

The final selection is a mixture of some well-known and lesser-known works from the 1970s to the present. Both artist and curator felt it was important to select a grouping that emphasized the scope of her portraiture. There are some that fall squarely in the celebrity iconic category: Tom Cruise gazing over his shoulder; Brad Pitt lounging on a bed; Leonardo DiCaprio clutching a swan arched around his neck — possible, Leibovitz says, because of his “beautiful love of animals.” Others, few may recognize such as Agnes Martin, one of Leibovitz’s favorite artists. Leibovitz also gave the museum two additional photos of David Byrne and Andy Warhol.

Last week, Leibovitz made the trip to Florida to welcome her photos into the Norton’s permanent collection and offer a sort of show-and-tell. Dressed in all black, always black, the photographer walked into the space with the deep gray walls, and surveyed her own body of work. They represented more than four decades of work, captured moments that turned magazine covers into cultural statements. Others proved equally revealing in their stark minimalism.

First, she scanned the room — with a crowd of photographers and reporters in tow — then she walked over to the very beginning.

The photo, displayed in a corner near the entrance of the installation, shows a group of American soldiers standing with a petite woman. Leibovitz explained that she lived off garbage near Clark Air Base in the Philippines, where her father was stationed during the Vietnam War. Leibovitz was 18 at the time.

“I lined them up like a family picture,” she says. “This was before I thought of myself as a photographer.”

Stainback says the Norton collection is pure. Leibovitz says it’s sophisticated and surprising.

“Annie Leibovitz is one of the most important portrait photographers of our time and as such deserves a prominent place in our encyclopedic permanent collection,” said Stainback, who curated the installation as one of his last before leaving the museum in March for a college museum director post. “The photographs we’ve chosen demonstrate the quiet power of the photograph and the vital connection between the artist and the subject — the essential element of all great portraits.”