September 21st, 2012
Aperture at Sixty – Classic Covers
Aperture turns sixty this year, and in the weeks leading up to Aperture Foundation’s Sixtieth Anniversary Gala Dinner and Photography Auction, and in anticipation of the soon-to-be-published Aperture Magazine Anthology: The Minor White Years, 1952–1976, we’ll be sharing a collection of classic Aperture magazine covers, giving a glimpse into the magazine’s conception and evolution as a forum for photography.
This slideshow features the first four volumes of Aperture, from 1952-1956, a time when the magazine was produced in the living room of editor Minor White’s San Francisco apartment, operated on a shoestring budget (neither White nor the published photographers were paid), but was beginning to acquire its identity as a “mature” journal for “serious photographers and creative people everywhere.”
Click to Launch Slideshow
I was a student in 1951 in the photography department at the California School of Fine Arts (now The San Francisco Art Institute) when Minor went to the Conference in Aspen where it was decided to publish an art oriented photography magazine. Minor asked the students for suggestions for a title. In 1952 the first issue of Aperture was published. Fortunately I still have two copies of Aperture #1 signed by Minor. In 1955 I was a resident student of Minor in Rochester. I helped with typing for the magazine and even wrote an article on Frederic Sommer that was published in 1957. In 1955 Ansel decided he did not want to support Aperture. Funding the magazine was very difficult. However, in 1955 Shirley Burden began his contributions to keep Aperture afloat. I would recommend reading the “Golden Decade: Photography at the California School of Fine Arts 1945-1955″ to learn more about the events that led to the birth of Aperture.