The International Center for Photography and Photography Resources at Illinois

Located in the center of Midtown Manhattan in New York City, the International Center for Photography (ICP) has served as a photography museum, school, and research center since it opened in 1974. During its 40 years in operation, the ICP expanded its collections, exhibits, and educational programs, making it an excellent resource for international users interested in photography.

About the ICP Collection

ICP’s permanent collection of photography comprised of more than 100,000 photographs in a variety of formats. The collection includes vintage photographs, as well as negatives, contact sheets, slides, and cased images and spans the history of the photographic medium, from daguerreotypes to gelatin silver and digital chromogenic prints. The Center’s strongest collection is American and European documentary photography from the 1930s through the 1960s. ICP also owns comprehensive archives of the works of Robert Capa, Cornell Capa, Gerda Taro, Chim (David Seymour), Roman Vishniac, and Weegee (Arthur Fellig), as well as works by members of the Photo League and photographers of the Farm Security Administration. It also has substantial holdings of work by Henri Cartier-Bresson, Alfred Eisenstaedt, Robert Frank, Andre Kertesz, Lisette Model, Gordon Parks, Aaron Siskind, James VanDerZee, and Garry Winogrand. In addition, ICP’s collection also includes a distinctive survey of vernacular photography, including photographic albums, commercial photography, and real photo postcards. Finally, the ICP also has an extensive collection of significant photographic magazines such as Vu, Regards, Picture Post, Berliner Illustrirte Zeitung, Arbeiter Illustrierte Zeitung, and Life. Their recent collection building efforts are made to purchase important works by Eugéne Atget, Bill Brandt, Marco Breuer, Harry Callahan, Chim (David Seymour), Nan Goldin, André Kertész, Gustav Klutsis, Vik Muniz, Suzanne Opton, Terry Richardson, Peter Sekaer, Christer Strömholm, Maurice Tabard, and Pinar Yolacan. [1]

Because of the large number of works in the collection, not all are currently cataloged and available online. All cataloged items are available in eMuseum, which is ICP’s open database for users to search and browse the collection.They are working on cataloging more items and have them available through eMuseum. When clicking in an item catalog, high quality image of the item is available with a brief record of Artist, Subject, Dimensions, Medium, and Credit Line. Some items also list copyright information. [2]

Item Record

ICP Museum Education

ICP makes full use of this rich collection to facilitate multiple education programs, including guided and self-guided tours, interpretative materials, and events for educators. Guided tour are designed for visitors at different age ranges: Grades K–6, Grades 7–12, New York City Public Schools, K–12, College Students & Seniors: Adults. Self-guided groups can explore the museum exhibitions at their own pace. The museum designs guides for teachers from elementary school, middle school and high school to prepare their knowledge about exhibitions before taking their students to the center. ICP also has family guides for families to learn more the past, current, and future exhibitions. These documents are prepared in PDF format. These resources help build patrons’ visual literacy and critical thinking skills, and introduce them to professional photography techniques. They also have classes for continuing education, international students, teen students, and online students. [3]

ICP School Open House

UIUC Library Photography Resources

UIUC library also has rich photography related resources. We are holding more than four thousand photography related books and journals in our catalog. We also a large number of items in our digital image archives. [4] [5] All affiliated users and community members can use them in the library or check them out. We also actively work with Interlibrary loan system to share our collections with other libraries.