| International Center of Photography | |
| Coordinates: | 40.718°N -73.9886°W |
| Established: | 1974 |
| Location: | 79 Essex Street, Manhattan, New York |
| Director: | David E. Little |
| Publictransit: | Bus
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| Website: | www.icp.org |
The International Center of Photography (ICP) is a photography museum and school at 79 Essex Street on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in New York City.[1] ICP's photographic collection, reading room, and archives are at Mana Contemporary in Jersey City, New Jersey.[2] The organization was founded by Cornell Capa in 1974.[3] It is located at 79 Essex Street, within the Lower East Side.
ICP is the host of the Infinity Awards, inaugurated in 1985 "to bring public attention to outstanding achievements in photography by honoring individuals with distinguished careers in the field and by identifying future luminaries."
Since its founding in 1974 by Cornell Capa with help from Micha Bar-Am in Willard Straight House, on Fifth Avenue's Museum Mile, ICP has presented over 500 exhibitions, bringing the work of more than 3,000 photographers and other artists to the public in one-person and group exhibitions and provided various classes and workshops for students.[4]
ICP was founded to keep the legacy of "Concerned Photography" alive. After the untimely deaths of his brother Robert Capa and his colleagues Werner Bischof, Chim (David Seymour), and Dan Weiner in the 1950s, Capa saw the need to keep their humanitarian documentary work in the public eye. In 1966 he founded the International Fund for Concerned Photography. By 1974 the Fund needed a home, and the International Center of Photography was created.
In 1985, a satellite facility, ICP Midtown, was created. Plans were also made for redesigning and reconstructing the Midtown location.[5]
In 1999, the headquarters building at 1130 Fifth Avenue was sold. The expanded galleries at 1133 Avenue of the Americas at 43rd Street were designed by Gwathmey Siegel & Associates Architects for the display of photography and new media. The reopening in the fall of 2000 of the 17000square feet site, previously used as a photo gallery for Kodak,[6] provided in one location the same amount of gallery space as the two previous sites combined and became the headquarters of ICP's public exhibitions programs, and also housed an expanded store and a café.
The expansion of the school of the International Center of Photography in the fall of 2001 created a Midtown campus diagonally across from the museum in the Grace Building at 1114 Avenue of the Americas. Designed by the architecture firm Gensler, the 27000square feet school facility doubled ICP's teaching space and allowed ICP to expand both its programming and community outreach.[7]
In 2014, ICP's board approved a plan to buy a building on the Bowery near the New Museum and relocate there. The center's school, whose lease continued through 2018, remained in Midtown, but was expected to eventually move downtown to consolidate operations.[8] The midtown museum closed on January 11, 2015, when its lease ended. The ICP museum at 250 Bowery opened on June 23, 2016.[9] In 2017, ICP signed a deal with Delancey Street Associates to house its museum and school at Essex Crossing on the Lower East Side. In 2019, ICP sold its space at 250 Bowery and purchased its new home at 79 Essex Street at Essex Crossing.[10]
In January 2020, ICP opened its new integrated center at 79 Essex Street. Designed by architecture firm Gensler, the 40000square feet building has galleries, media labs, classrooms, darkrooms, shooting studios, a shop, café, research library and public event spaces. The new space is the cultural anchor of the $1.9 billion six-acre Essex Crossing development.[11] [12]
ICP's school serves more than 3,500 students each year,[13] offering courses in a curriculum that ranges from darkroom classes to certificate and master's degree programs. Other educational programming includes a lecture series, seminars, symposia, and workshops hosted by professional photographers.[14] In 2023, educator, artist, and photographer Colette Veasey-Cullors became the Dean and Deputy Director of ICP's school, joining from the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) where she served as Interim Vice Provost for Undergraduate Studies.[15]
Opened in 2001, the School was previously at a 27000square feet facility at 1114 Avenue of the Americas. Designed by Gensler, it was across the street from the former ICP Museum. ICP's school and museum are now located in a unified center on Manhattan's Lower East Side at 79 Essex Street.
The school offers a year-round selection of continuing education classes; three one-year Certificate programs (Creative Practices in Photography, Documentary Practice and Visual Journalism, and New Media Narratives); and the ICP-Bard Program in Advanced Photographic Studies, a two-year graduate program leading to a master of fine arts degree.
Public programs address issues in photography and its relationship to art, culture, and society and promote the interpretation of ICP's exhibitions and collections. The Photographers Lecture Series invites photographers to present their work while sharing ideas and concerns about the medium. Other seminars, symposia, and panel discussions feature artists, critics, scholars, and historians.
Community programs relate to the exhibitions. Programs include interactive tours, family day events, workshops, long-term photography programs in four New York City public schools, summer photography programs in community centers, and a high school internship program designed to promote youth leadership.
The ICP hosts the Infinity Awards, which were inaugurated in 1985 "to bring public attention to outstanding achievements in photography by honoring individuals with distinguished careers in the field and by identifying future luminaries".
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The permanent collection at ICP contains more than 200,000 photographs and related materials from the earliest forms of photography to contemporary work.[21] Since its opening in 1974, ICP has acquired important historical and contemporary images through an acquisitions committee and through donations and bequests from photographers and collectors. The collection spans the history of photography, including daguerrotypes, gelatin silver and digital chromogenic prints.
The collection is strongest in its holdings of American and European documentary photography of the 1930s to the 1990s. It comprises large bodies of work by W. Eugene Smith, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Capa, the Farm Security Administration photographers, Alfred Eisenstaedt, Lisette Model, Gordon Parks, James VanDerZee, Louise Ozelle Martin, and Garry Winogrand. More recent purchases have included work by contemporary photographers such as Carrie Mae Weems, Justine Kurland, Katy Grannan, Vik Muniz, and Susan Meiselas.
Another component of the collection is a significant group of photographically illustrated magazines, particularly those published between World War I and II, such as Vu, Regards, Picture Post, Lilliput, Berliner Illustrirte Zeitung, Arbeiter-Illustrierte-Zeitung, and Life.
Opened in 2015, the International Center of Photography at Mana Contemporary is a 15,000-square-foot space that houses the permanent collection, a media lab, areas for research, and a gallery.
In 2003 the ICP joined with the publisher Steidl of Göttingen, Germany to launch the photography imprint ICP/Steidl.
The Library of the International Center of Photography serves more than 6,000 visitors a year. The information and bibliographic resources it provides are used by ICP staff, patrons, and researchers. As of 2008, the Library receives 75 periodicals and serials, and its collection of approximately 20,000 volumes and 2,000 files is available for on-site perusal.[22]
Library materials are searchable on ICP's online catalog. The ICP Library no longer has any library staff.
In 2000, George Eastman House (GEH) and ICP launched the GEH - ICP Alliance, whose fundamental aim is to enhance public understanding and appreciation of photography, through exhibitions, publications, research, scholarship, collection sharing, and the joint website Photomuse.org.[23]
In this collaboration, the staffs of the International Center of Photography and George Eastman House share resources, pool their expertise, and dovetail their collections for a series of exhibitions called "New Histories of Photography".