The Photographs series consists of approximately 13,339 black-and-white negatives, 108 prints, 880 slides, 186 stereoscopic slides, and a stereoscopic viewer. The series contains both Kalmus's personal and professional photographs. Kalmus family pictures in the series document the Kalmus's wedding as well as Jewish high holy days and family gatherings. Documentary-style photographs show views of Brooklyn and Manhattan, including Ebbets Field, Coney Island, Prospect Park, Grand Army Plaza, Times Square, and the Empire State Building. A small portion of the materials relate to Kalmus's childhood neighborhood around Vermont Street in East New York, Brooklyn, including 32 black-and-white prints and 14 black-and-white negatives. Portraits, as well as some candid shots, of babies and families are interspersed throughout the series.
Kalmus was probably best known for photographing Jewish weddings and Bar Mitzvahs in Brooklyn, particularly in the neighborhood of Crown Heights. These photographs provide rich documentation of Jewish traditions in New York City during the 1940s and 1950s. Wedding and Bar Mitzvah locations depicted in the series include Young Israel of Eastern Parkway, B'nai Jacob, the Park Sheraton, Hotel St. George, DeLuxe Palace, Franklin Manor, Twin Cantors, Empire Mansion, Mt. Eden Center, Sunrise Manor, Imperial Gardens, and Young Israel of New Lots and East New York. Bar Mitzvah boys are regularly depicted posing with the Tenach (prayer book) and tallit (prayer shawl), his parents, the cake, and friends attending the celebration. Wedding photographs show the ceremony under the chuppah (canopy), recitation of the Sheva Brachot (seven blessings), signing of the ketubah (Jewish marriage contract), the Kiddush and Hamotzi blessings with wine and lechem mishneh (two breads), Horah (dance with bride and groom in chairs), and Mezinke Tanz (dance around the parents of the bride or groom).
Items in the collection are loosely arranged by format, year, and individual event. Families depicted in wedding and Bar Mitzvah photographs are identified on photograph and negative sleeves, and these names can be searched in the image database in the library.