The collection includes nature scenes including rivers, creeks, agricultural scenes, flowers and plants, and geologic formations, mainly throughout the Pacific Northwest. Laughlin's photos of landscapes and flora have appeared in numerous publications. River images are of particular interest to people today, as Laughlin captured scenes of the Snake River before the four lower Snake River dams were built in the 1960s and 1970s, showing the beaches and orchards lost to flooding due to the rising reservoirs and when salmon runs were still abundant.

Photographs of people inlcude posed portraits and informal photos of Laughlin's family and friends and of the family pets, and of social gatherings and other noted events such as graduation ceremonies and holidays.

The collection was originally processed and described in 1998 and 1999 by Karen Hertel. The collection is organized by type such as negatives and slides, using Laughlin's original numbering and lettering system. Where individual item descriptions were not included in the original inventory, handwritten indexes, if available, were scanned and linked to in this finding aid. Contact prints for the negatives are organized into sprial-bound books. Selected prints were made from both the slides and negatives then organized by Laughlin, many combined into spiral-bound books by topic or subject. Also included are reel films and notes and research written or collected by Laughlin.

In 2009, over 800 negatives were scanned by the University of Idaho Library's Data and Digital Services to create the digital Kyle Laughlin Photograph Collection. Previous digitization attempts have resulted in small samples within the original numbering system having been scanned, which can be seen as legacy thumbnail links in Special Collections Historical Photograph Database and are noted on this finding aid.