The International Center of Photography (ICP) is a photography museum and school on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in New York City. ICP's photographic collection, reading room, and archives are at Mana Contemporary in Jersey City, New Jersey. The organization was founded by Cornell Capa in 1974.

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."

History 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.

Founding & Fist Home 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 Audubon Society had outgrown its Delano & Aldrich-designed neo-Georgian mansion at 94th Street, in the Carnegie Hill section of the Upper East Side and sold to another nonprofit organization. The International Center of Photography was created and moved into the Willard D. Straight House at 1130 Fifth Avenue.

In 1985, a satellite facility, ICP Midtown, was created. Plans were also made for redesigning and reconstructing the Midtown location.

Movement and Redesign

In 2000, ICP sold the Fifth Avenue headquarters for $17.5 million to hedge fund founder Bruce Kovner who returned it to use as a private residence after 48 years as a nonprofit headquarters.

The expanded galleries at 1133 Sixth Avenue 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 site, previously used as a photo gallery for Kodak, 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 Sixth Avenue. Designed by the architecture firm Gensler, the school facility doubled ICP's teaching space and allowed ICP to expand both its programming and community outreach.

Move to the Lower East Side

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 remained in Midtown, but was expected to eventually move downtown when the lease ended.Randy Kennedy (September 24, 2014), Photography Center Leaving Midtown for the Bowery New York Times. The midtown museum closed on 11 January 2015, when its lease ended. The ICP museum at 250 Bowery opened on 23 June 2016. 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.

In January 2020, ICP opened its new integrated center at 79 Essex Street with the main entrance at 84 Ludlow Street. Designed by architecture firm Gensler, the building has two entrances, 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.Nancy Kenney (January 22, 2020), International Center of Photography prepares to move into a far bigger home in New York The Art Newspaper.

ICP's School

ICP's school serves more than 3,500 students each year, 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.

Opened in 2001, the School was previously at a facility at 1114 Sixth Avenue. 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 84 Ludlow Street.

The school offers a year-round selection of continuing education classes; two one-year Certificate programs on-site (Creative Practices in Photography, Documentary Practice and Visual Journalism); and three one-year Certificate programs online (Documentary Practice: Visual Storytelling Online, Writing and the Photographic Image, and Curatorial Practices in Photography).

Public programs Public programs at ICP address issues in photography and its relationship to art, culture, and society and promote the interpretation of ICP's exhibitions and collections. The Naomi Rosenblum ICP Talks 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 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.

Infinity Awards 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".

Winners 1985-1999 Year Master of Photography Applied/Fashion/ Advertising Art Photojournalism Publication Young Photographer Lifetime Achievement Design Writing 1985 André Kertész Sarah Moon David Hockney Alberto Venzago Photo Poche Masaaki Mayazawa No award given No award given No award given 1986 Hiroshi Hamaya No award given Lucas Samaras Sebastião Salgado W. Eugene SmithLet Truth Be the Prejudice: W. Eugene Smith, His Life and Photographs Anthony Suau Edward K. Thompson Alan Richardson 1987 Manuel Álvarez Bravo Jay Maisel Robert Rauschenberg Eugene Richards Robert FrankNew York to Nova Scotia Paul Graham Harold Edgerton Hans-Georg Pospischil 1988 Alfred Eisenstaedt Guy Bourdin Georges RousseJoel-Peter Witkin Sebastião Salgado Richard MisrachDesert Cantos Marc Trivier Edwin H. Land Werner Jeker Peter Galassi 1989 Berenice Abbott Joyce Tenneson Arnulf Rainer James Nachtwey Josef KoudelkaExiles Pablo Cabado Alexander Liberman Michael Rand John Szarkowski 1990 Yousuf Karsh Annie Leibovitz Chuck Close Jacques Langevin Sarah GreenoughJoel SnyderOn the Art of Fixing a Shadow: One Hundred and Fifty Years of Photography Miro Svolik Gordon Parks No award given Max Kozloff 1991 Harry Callahan Herb Ritts Duane Michals Antonin Kratochvil Sylvia PlachySylvia Plachy's Unguided Tour Walter Dhladhla Andreas Feininger Gran Fury Anna Fárová 1992 Lennart Nilsson Oliviero Toscani Doug StarnMike Starn Christopher Morris Irving PennPassage: A Work Record Klaus Reisinger Carl Mydans Gunter Rambow Alan Trachtenberg 1993 Richard Avedon Geof Kern Anselm Kiefer James Nachtwey Jane LivingstonThe New York School: Photographs, 1936-1963 Nick Waplington Stefan Lorant David Carson Arthur C. Danto 1994 Henri Cartier-Bresson Bruce Weber Cindy Sherman Hans-Jürgen Burkard Sebastião SalgadoLelia Wanick SalgadoWorkers: An Archaeology of the Industrial Age Fazal Sheikh Howard Chapnick No award given Maria Morris HambourgPierre Apraxine 1995 Eve Arnold Josef Astor Clarissa Sligh Gilles Peress Eugene RichardsAmericans We: Photographs and Notes Sean Doyle John Szarkowski Yolanda Cuomo Deborah Willis 1996 Horst P. Horst Wolfgang Volz Annette Messager Lise Sarfati Gilles PeressThe Silence Eva Leitolf Cornell Capa Markus Rasp A. D. Coleman 1997 Helen Levitt David LaChapelle Christian Boltanski Mary Ellen Mark Chris RileyDouglas NivenThe Killing Fields Lauren Greenfield Robert Delpire Chip Kidd Vicki Goldberg 1998 Roy DeCarava Inez van LamsweerdeVinoodh Matadin Sigmar Polke Steve Hart Horst FaasTim PageRequiem: By the Photographers Who Died in Vietnam and Indochina Michael Ackerman Naomi RosenblumWalter Rosenblum J. Abbott Miller Robert Coles 1999 Arnold Newman Julius Shulman Hiroshi Sugimoto Alexandra Boulat Charles BowdenJuárez: The Laboratory of Our Future Nicolai Fuglsig Harold Evans Bart HoutmanGuido van Lier John Morris

2000-present In 2000, the Cornell Capa Award was introduced, which later merged with the Lifetime Achievement award into the Cornell Capa Lifetime Achievement, later renamed back to Lifetime Achievement.