$url = 'http://api.vkontakte.ru/method/photos.getAlbums?gid=20358775&need_covers=1&count=24'; 
$content = file_get_contents($url);
$json = json_decode($content, true); 

foreach($json['response'] as $item) 
{
...............  бла бла бла
}

function http_request($url)
{
    $curl_handler = curl_init($url);
    curl_setopt($curl_handler, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
    $response = curl_exec($curl_handler);
    curl_close($curl_handler);
    return $response;
}


$url = 'http://api.vkontakte.ru/method/photos.getAlbums?gid=23178968&need_covers=1&count=24';
$content = http_request($url);
$json = json_decode($content, true); 

foreach($json['response'] as $item)
 {
 ----- бла бла бла 
}