For this year’s Summer Open, Aperture’s annual open-call exhibition, we asked photographers to consider the future and the ways in which our current reality might echo outlandish narratives of science fiction. The title Black Mirror is borrowed from the 2011 British television series of the same name, which imagines a dystopian near future—a Twilight Zone for the age of the smartphone. The twenty-four projects, culled from more than 500, represent diverse subjects and photographic approaches, reflecting aspects particular to our current moment. Their concerns run the gamut, from how technology increasingly permeates daily life, such as in series that reference big data, Bitcoin, and WikiLeaks; to projects on the opposite end of the spectrum, about off-the-grid communities that have rejected contemporary life. The exhibition will open on July 16 at Aperture Gallery in New York. Here we offer some of Aperture magazine editor Michael Famighetti’s selections for the show.


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