The photos in the Museum of the City of New York's "Celebrating the City" exhibition all have one thing in common: they are all unmistakably New York, whether it is an image of the city's people, places or things.  

"The idea was we wanted to bring out materials from the permanent collection — and particularly new acquisitions for the permanent collection — that reflect various ways we live in the city," Sean Corcoran, the museum's curator of prints and photographs, said.

The photos chronicle how New Yorkers get around, the places they go for quiet reflection and where they play and gather. The exhibition includes recent photography acquisitions by the museum, including some of the more than 1,000 photos from an organization called The Joy of Giving Something.

The museum has an extensive collection of photography that is growing through gifts, while it seeks out work that is truly New York.

"We have more than 400,000 photographs in the collection dating back to the earliest days of photography in the 1840s here in New York City and we are actively collecting, particularly in the realm of contemporary photography, to be more reflective of what life looks like here in the city these days and to be more reflective of the great diversity of the city," Corcoran said.

The photos also document the changing city, with images of places that could be here one day, but gone the next.

"To have these places recorded allow future generations to see what life in the city was like in another time, and not just the buildings and the building environment, but the way people lived and moved about in the city," Corcoran said.

While Celebrating the City will end on Jan. 9, more photography is on the way, including the museum's first photography triennial in the spring. It's an exhibition that will take place every three years focused on contemporary photography called New York Now.