  The Carnegie-Irvine Galaxy Survey (CGS) is a long-term program to investigate
the photometric and spectroscopic properties of a statistically complete sample
of 605 bright (B_T < 12.9 mag), southern (Dec. < 0) galaxies using the
facilities at Las Campanas Observatory. This paper, the first in a series,
outlines the scientific motivation of CGS, defines the sample, and describes
the technical aspects of the optical broadband (BVRI) imaging component of the
survey, including details of the observing program, data reduction procedures,
and calibration strategy. The overall quality of the images is quite high, in
terms of resolution (median seeing 1"), field of view (8.9' X 8.9'), and depth
(median limiting surface brightness 27.5, 26.9, 26.4, and 25.3 mag/arcsec2 in
the B, V, R, and I bands, respectively). We prepare a digital image atlas
showing several different renditions of the data, including three-color
composites, star-cleaned images, stacked images to enhance faint features,
structure maps to highlight small-scale features, and color index maps suitable
for studying the spatial variation of stellar content and dust. In anticipation
of upcoming science analyses, we tabulate an extensive set of global properties
for the galaxy sample. These include optical isophotal and photometric
parameters derived from CGS itself, as well as published information on
multiwavelength (ultraviolet, U-band, near-infrared, far-infrared) photometry,
internal kinematics (central stellar velocity dispersions, disk rotational
velocities), environment (distance to nearest neighbor, tidal parameter, group
or cluster membership), and H I content. The digital images and science-level
data products will be made publicly accessible to the community.
