An image information acquiring apparatus of the present invention includes an acoustic wave detector having, disposed on a reception surface thereof, a plurality of elements that detect acoustic waves generated by an object corresponding to a reconstruction area； an acoustic signal generator that generates acoustic signals that are used in image reconstruction, from the detected acoustic waves； an element selector that selects elements that are used in image reconstruction； and a reconstructor that performs image reconstruction of a point of interest using acoustic signals based on the acoustic waves detected by the selected elements, the image information acquiring apparatus being configured such that, for each selected element, there exists another selected element located at a symmetrical position with respect to a point at which the reception surface is intersected by a perpendicular line drawn from the point of interest to the reception surface.
