The John Albok Collection almost exclusively comprises photographs of New York City, especially Manhattan. The collection is divided into three series: Prints; Negatives; Documents. As a whole the collection spans 1928-2006, but the primary years are 1930-1980, when virtually all the photographs were taken. The decades with the largest number of prints are the 1940s and 1950s.

Albok's fondest subject was Central Park, and the Society's Albok collection has hundreds of prints and negatives of the park from the late 1920s up until 1980. The Central Park pictures depict a variety of activities: picnics, artists, sports, birds such as herons, ducks, and pigeons, and winter snowfall among them. Many also depict the Central Park Conservatory Garden, opened in 1937, that runs along northern Fifth Avenue, a few blocks from where Albok lived. The remaining Central Park pictures are of trees, flowers and the reservoir. Albok also photographed numerous street scenes throughout the decades, particularly of his East Harlem neighborhood. His earlier neighborhood photographs delineate the Italian demographic of the area before the post-World War II Hispanic influx that led to the nickname Spanish Harlem or "El Barrio." Aside from East Harlem photographs there are also photos of 1960s Greenwich Village and landmarks such as Rockefeller Center, the United Nations, the Guggenheim Museum, and one photo of the Empire State Building. Other subjects include the 1939-1940 World's Fair, the Russian Orthodox Church, various Hungarian functions, animals, children, portraits done in his tailor shop/studio, and a few miscellaneous pictures that include skyscapes, building interiors, Mayor Fiorella LaGuardia at Madison Square Garden and Louis Lefkowitz at a soccer match. The Hungarian pictures include Hungarian picnics in Bohemian Park, Queens, and New Jersey. The New Jersey pictures were taken mostly at Bugacs Puszta, a farm in Dayton, New Jersey. According to Ilona Vitarius, the Bugacs Puszta was the first New York and New Jersey Hungarian Charity Association, founded in 1901. Bugacs may be a reference to "Bugac," small area of central Hungary; Puszta is the Hungarian word for steppes. Albok gave money to the organization and even made a 16mm film of its underprivileged children camps. The New-York Historical Society does not have this film footage.

Despite living in New York City for 60 years, Albok's known work includes few pictures taken outside Manhattan. The Society's Albok collection has little of other boroughs - none of Staten Island, a few of the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens, only the World's Fair and Bohemian Park in Queens, none of the Bronx. One oversized print is identified as Westchester county. The parade images the Society has are mainly of Labor Day parades. Albok did photograph numerous other labor demonstrations and parades, including May Day rallies in Union Square during the 1930s, however the Society does not have these prints. The Society's collection also has no prints of the 1964 World's Fair, none of any major city parades such as Easter, Thanksgiving Day, St. Patrick's Day, World Series or other sporting celebrations, or parades for dignitaries or visiting heads of state. It is unknown if Albok took such pictures. Overall the Society's Albok pictures of downtown are mainly of art sales in and around Washington Square Park and capture little of the folk scene of Greenwich Village. In addition, of the few pictures related to Vietnam in the collection, all but one are of pro-intervention rallies.