ICP’s collections exhibition celebrating the institution’s 50th anniversary continues through the summer and fall in a condensed form, with approximately 70 works from the collection on view. Celebrating ICP’s legacy as New York City’s photography museum, as well as the history of photography, this exhibit traces the development of the medium and photography’s impact on culture and history.
ICP’s founder Cornell Capa created ICP in 1974 in honor of his brother Robert Capa, a preeminent photojournalist of his day, who died in 1954. Robert Capa's archive became a key early piece of ICP’s collection, alongside work by other early photojournalists and documentarians. ICP was founded with the purpose of championing “concerned photography”–for Cornell Capa, photographs of importance could be anything from documenting military conflict to observing quiet moments of peace. In the ensuing five decades, ICP’s collection has expanded to include early photographic works, vernacular images, fashion photography, and fine art photography among many other types of photographic production. Currently, the permanent collection contains more than 200,000 prints and related materials. Dissolving and challenging boundaries between categories—technological, aesthetic, conceptual, and beyond—the collection is a celebration of image culture and the medium’s ability to reflect the values and interests of its time.
ICP at 50 is curated by Elisabeth Sherman, ICP Senior Curator and Director of Exhibitions and Collections; Sara Ickow, ICP Senior Manager, Exhibitions and Collections; and Haley Kane, ICP Coordinator, Exhibitions and Collections.
