International Center of Photography

79 Essex Street
The International Center of Photography, or ICP, is a museum, a school and a center for photographers and photography. ICP's mission is to present photography's vital and central place in contemporary culture, and to lead in interpretation of issues ... more

The International Center of Photography, or ICP, is a museum, a school and a center for photographers and photography. ICP's mission is to present photography's vital and central place in contemporary culture, and to lead in interpretation of issues central to its development. ICP celebrates photography's diversity in many roles: as an agent of social change, a medium of aesthetic expression, a tool for scientific or historical research, and a repository for personal experience and memory. Like the photographic medium itself, ICP's mission is expanding to encompass many new forms of electronic imaging media.

The Permanent Collection at the International Center of Photography houses over 100,000 photographs. The collection spans the history of the photographic medium, from Daguerreotypes and real photo postcards to iris prints. ICP’s galleries are designed for the display of a wide range of photography and new media with state-of-the-art lighting, climate control systems and digital presentation systems.

ICP's educational programming includes instruction, interpretation, and critical discourse in the areas of theory, practice, and the history of photography.


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Lower East Side Description

International Center of Photography is located in the Lower East Side neighborhood of Manhattan. While this could apply to most neighborhoods in this guide, the Lower East Side might be the best example yet of an area that was once down-at-the-heels, full of recent immigrants striving towards the American dream and long-time residents just trying to make ends meet, and is now as expensive as anywhere else in Manhattan, filled to the gills on weekends with the bridge-and-tunnel crowd looking to eat fancy and party hard. The Lower East Side is boxed in between Alphabet City and Chinatown and between Little Italy, Nolita, and the East Rive, running roughing south from Delancey Street to FDR Drive and from the East River west to Allen Street. In the last 150 years, the Lower East Side has been populated by successive waves of lower-income German, Irish, and Jewish immigrants, and has seen extensive immigration of Chinese and Latin populations in recent decades. Although the well-known Tenement Museum on Orchard Street chronicles the historically difficult, even squalid, conditions in the neighborhood’s tenements, rents have risen to four, six, even eight times what they were just five years ago. Today, Ludlow and Orchard Streets reflect the newest wave of immigrants: the dot-com and downtown crowd. In fact, an unbelievable array of new boutiques, restaurants, stores, fabulous bars and music clubs compete with the area’s long-established tailors, fabric dealers, button wholesalers, religious artifact suppliers, pickle vendors, and Kosher wine distributors. The neighborhood’s crowded parks and outdoor recreation areas reflect the pastiche of New York’s ethnically diverse groups, especially in summer, and a dizzying array of music from around the world can be heard literally on every corner. Take a stroll around to see some of the city’s oldest synagogues, famous delicatessens, shopping streets, and hang out with the hippest crowds. Art enthusiasts will be interested to know that the mother lode of art galleries in New York's Chelsea neighborhood has seen tectonic shifts, albeit slowly, to the Lower East Side, with trendy smaller new galleries popping up here and there. Many attribute this gallery migration to the Lower East Side to the presence of the New Museum of Contemporary Art on the Bowery, the first art museum ever constructed from the ground up in this neighborhood. Nightlife on the Lower East Side, especially on the weekends, is always rocking, with almost as many people cruising its narrow streets as there are inside its numerous bars, restaurants and live music venues. Up and coming alternative rock bands play at Bowery Ballroom on Delancey Street and Mercury Lounge on East Houston Street, while lesser known acts perform at smaller venues, such as the performance space in Pianos and the Living Room on Ludlow Street, or by booking Arlene's Grocery on Stanton Street. If you're looking to grab a bite to eat before concert-hoping from venue to venue, try Apizz, which features great Southern Italian cuisine and Prune, which is renowned for its fine American dining. The Lower East Side is definitely moving upwardly in its hotel and real estate offerings. The growth of this neighborhood has brought several new luxury boutique hotels, including Hotel On Rivington and the deluxe boutique Blue Moon Hotel on Orchard Street.

There are no events taking place on this date.

Info

79 Essex Street
New York, NY 10002
(212) 857-0000
Website

Editorial Rating

Admission And Tickets

$18 - Adults
$14 - Military & Seniors
$12 - Students (With valid ID)

Free for visitors under 14 and Members.

Pay by donation on Thursdays from 5 to 9 PM and the last Saturday of the month from 11 AM to 2 PM.

This Week's Hours

11:00am to 7:00pm
Thu extended evening hours to 9pm
Closed on Tuesdays.

Closed: New Year's Day, January 1; Independence Day, July 4; Thanksgiving Day; Christmas Day, December 25.

Nearby Subway

  • to Delancey Street
  • to Essex Street

Upcoming Events

Yto Barrada: Part Time Abstractionist

A solo exhibition of work by internationally acclaimed multi-disciplinary artist, Yto Barrada. In Part Time Abstractionist, Barrada’s many decades of investigations into photography and abstraction will be explored, beginning in the early 2000s through the present. These two modes of working are con... [ + ]sistent throughout Barrada’s work and offer an insight into the ways she examines the social, political, and industrial structures that have and continue to shape society.   Yto Barrada: Part Time Abstractionist is the first exhibition in a new series focusing on alumni of ICP’s school. Barrada graduated from ICP’s Full-Time Documentary program in 1996.

05/22/2024 11:00 AM
Wed, May 22
11:00AM
$
$18 - Adults
$14 - Military & Seniors
$12 - Students (With valid ID)

Free for visitors under 14 and Members.

Pay by donation on Thursdays from 5 to 9 PM and the last Saturday of the month from 11 AM to 2 PM.
Get Tickets

Yto Barrada: Part Time Abstractionist

A solo exhibition of work by internationally acclaimed multi-disciplinary artist, Yto Barrada. In Part Time Abstractionist, Barrada’s many decades of investigations into photography and abstraction will be explored, beginning in the early 2000s through the present. These two modes of working are con... [ + ]sistent throughout Barrada’s work and offer an insight into the ways she examines the social, political, and industrial structures that have and continue to shape society.   Yto Barrada: Part Time Abstractionist is the first exhibition in a new series focusing on alumni of ICP’s school. Barrada graduated from ICP’s Full-Time Documentary program in 1996.

05/23/2024 11:00 AM
Thu, May 23
11:00AM
$
$18 - Adults
$14 - Military & Seniors
$12 - Students (With valid ID)

Free for visitors under 14 and Members.

Pay by donation on Thursdays from 5 to 9 PM and the last Saturday of the month from 11 AM to 2 PM.
Get Tickets

Yto Barrada: Part Time Abstractionist

A solo exhibition of work by internationally acclaimed multi-disciplinary artist, Yto Barrada. In Part Time Abstractionist, Barrada’s many decades of investigations into photography and abstraction will be explored, beginning in the early 2000s through the present. These two modes of working are con... [ + ]sistent throughout Barrada’s work and offer an insight into the ways she examines the social, political, and industrial structures that have and continue to shape society.   Yto Barrada: Part Time Abstractionist is the first exhibition in a new series focusing on alumni of ICP’s school. Barrada graduated from ICP’s Full-Time Documentary program in 1996.

05/24/2024 11:00 AM
Fri, May 24
11:00AM
$
$18 - Adults
$14 - Military & Seniors
$12 - Students (With valid ID)

Free for visitors under 14 and Members.

Pay by donation on Thursdays from 5 to 9 PM and the last Saturday of the month from 11 AM to 2 PM.
Get Tickets

Yto Barrada: Part Time Abstractionist

A solo exhibition of work by internationally acclaimed multi-disciplinary artist, Yto Barrada. In Part Time Abstractionist, Barrada’s many decades of investigations into photography and abstraction will be explored, beginning in the early 2000s through the present. These two modes of working are con... [ + ]sistent throughout Barrada’s work and offer an insight into the ways she examines the social, political, and industrial structures that have and continue to shape society.   Yto Barrada: Part Time Abstractionist is the first exhibition in a new series focusing on alumni of ICP’s school. Barrada graduated from ICP’s Full-Time Documentary program in 1996.

05/25/2024 11:00 AM
Sat, May 25
11:00AM
$
$18 - Adults
$14 - Military & Seniors
$12 - Students (With valid ID)

Free for visitors under 14 and Members.

Pay by donation on Thursdays from 5 to 9 PM and the last Saturday of the month from 11 AM to 2 PM.
Get Tickets

Yto Barrada: Part Time Abstractionist

A solo exhibition of work by internationally acclaimed multi-disciplinary artist, Yto Barrada. In Part Time Abstractionist, Barrada’s many decades of investigations into photography and abstraction will be explored, beginning in the early 2000s through the present. These two modes of working are con... [ + ]sistent throughout Barrada’s work and offer an insight into the ways she examines the social, political, and industrial structures that have and continue to shape society.   Yto Barrada: Part Time Abstractionist is the first exhibition in a new series focusing on alumni of ICP’s school. Barrada graduated from ICP’s Full-Time Documentary program in 1996.

05/26/2024 11:00 AM
Sun, May 26
11:00AM
$
$18 - Adults
$14 - Military & Seniors
$12 - Students (With valid ID)

Free for visitors under 14 and Members.

Pay by donation on Thursdays from 5 to 9 PM and the last Saturday of the month from 11 AM to 2 PM.
Get Tickets
View All Upcoming Events

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