Series I consists of 35 contact prints from 4 x 5 inch color negatives and 19 photographs. It contains images of the interior and exterior of St. Paul's Chapel during its use as a relief center after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, including memorials on surrounding fences; portraits of the first responders and rescue workers who were employed at Ground Zero and the support staff at St. Paul's Chapel who tended to workers and other visitors. It also includes images of the interior and exterior of the building housing Rescue Company 2, a FDNY company in Brooklyn that sustained heavy losses on September 11; and one photograph of the funeral of firefighter John Moran, who died on September 11. Most of these images were commissioned by the New-York Historical Society in the wake of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, or for related exhibitions at the Society in the following years.

97 color photographs documenting churches in the five boroughs of New York City, many adapted from former theaters, synagogues, and storefronts. Prints are in four sizes (in inches): 8 x 10, 11 x 14, 11 x 17, and 20 x 24. A number of these images appear in Racioppo's self-published chapbook Grace: Photographs of NYC Churches, a copy of which may be found in Series V (box 10, folder 4).

This series includes approximately 765 photographs taken while Racioppo worked as the official photographer for New York City's Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD). He was hired by HPD in 1989 to document the city's rebuilding of its distressed neighborhoods in all five boroughs. The subjects of these photos include demolition, construction, and before and after images of rehabilitated apartment buildings and playgrounds. There are also portraits of tenants in their apartments, squatters, homeless people, building managers, building superintendents, construction workers, HPD staff and program participants, and city and state officials such as Mayor Edward Koch, Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, and Governor Mario Cuomo. This series also contains many photos of dilapidated buildings (interior and exterior), unsafe living conditions, evictions, crack house interiors, drug paraphernalia, and graffiti.

16 photographs documenting vernacular displays of religious iconography around New York City. The prints are signed, titled and dated on recto by the photographer. The images were published in the exhibition catalogue produced by the Museum of Biblical Art to accompany The Word on the Street: The Photographs of Larry Racioppo (Jun 15-Aug 20, 2006).

The photographs include:

Apartment Door Diptych, West 140th Street near Adam Clayton Powell, 1996, 16x20;

Do you Believe This? Frederick Douglass Boulevard near West 123rd Street, 1992, 16x20; Tin Knocker's Toolbox, Gold Street, Manhattan, 1995, 16x20;

Entranceway Altar, Near Lenox Avenue, Manhattan, 1990, 16x20;

Lobby Message, Saint Nicholas Avenue near West 116th Street, Manhattan, 1992, 24x20;

Paradise, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, 2000, 24x20;

Pierhula Hair Salon, 13rd Avenue and 77th Street, Brooklyn, 2005, 20x24; Universal Church of the Kingdom of God, Longwood, The Bronx, 2001, 20x24;

Jesus Saves Memorial Gates Avenue near Nostrand Avenue, Brooklyn, 2001, 30x40;

Pedro's Car, Warren Street near 3rd Avenue, Brooklyn, 1998, 30x40;

Mt. Kinley Square Theater, Boston Road, Bronx, NYC, 1999, 30x40; McKinley Square Theater (burned interior) Boston Road, Bronx, NYC, 1999, 30x40;

Doorway to Hell, Fulton Street near Rockaway Avenue, Brooklyn, 2001, 30x40;

Valencia Theater, Tabernacle of Prayer, Jamaica Avenue, Queens, NYC, 1999, 30x40; Valencia Theater (interior with cross), Tabernacle of Prayer, Jamaica Avenue, 1999, 30x40;

Pablo's Cross, Rockaway Beach Boulevard and Beach 47th Street, Queens, 1994, 17x51, mounted on Dibond

Four chapbooks (approximately 7.5 x 7.5) of photographs taken by Racioppo. Images from Grace: Photographs of NYC Churches are also present in the collection as prints in Series II: New York City Churches.