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.