Photo by Jonathan Torgovnik, courtesy the artist.

Aperture is pleased present another limited-edition photograph from Jonathan Torgovnik’s Intended Consequences:Rwandan Childern Born of Rape project. Last year we released the portrait of Jean-Paul, and we are happy to release a companion portrait.  Emmanuelle is one of an estimated twenty thousand children born of rape during the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Over the past three years Torgovnik has made repeated trips to Rwanda to document the experience of children like Emmanuelle, and their mothers, who fifteen years later continue to face enourmous challenges.

The sale of both of these prints benefit both the Aperture Foundation and Foundation Rwanda.

Click here to purchase the new print of Jonathan Torgovnik, Emmanuelle.

Click here to purchase the book Intended Consequences.

photo by Jen Davis, courtesy the artist.

Photographer Jen Davis has produced a stunning series of self-portraits in which she stages herself in different scenes of daily life. With her new series, “I ask in exchange,” she takes portraits of men she says she would not approach, were she not empowered by her camera. This machine gives her the courage to walk up and speak with them. It becomes a tool of seduction and for a brief moment, she “asks in exchange” for the shooting to be looked at and desired by the subject. She will discuss the representations of the self with philosopher Pierre Cassou- Noguès, whose latest book, Mon Zombie et moi (“My Zombie and I”), plays with different short pieces of fiction in which he uses “I,” as a starting point for his philosophical reflection.”

Jen Davis lives and works in New York City. She received her MFA from Yale University (2008), and her BA from Columbia College Chicago (2002). She is represented by Lee Marks Fine Art. ”The perfect body image in this culture requires that one be thin. Images of perfectly fit individuals saturate the visual media, creating icons which establish a norm that makes all else seem to be deviant. Overweight people do not satisfy what is attractive or desired. In this body of work, I deal with my insecurities about my body image and the direct correlation between self-perception and the way one is perceived by others.” Jen Davis. She is featured in reGeneration 2: tomorrow’s photographers today, currently on view at Aperture Gallery.

A graduate of the École Normale Supérieure, with a teaching degree in mathematics and a doctorate in philosophy, Pierre Cassou-Noguès is head of research at the CNRS (French National Center for Scientific Research) and lectures in philosophy at the University of Lille III. Co-organizer in 2005 of a conference entitled ”What can science fiction prove? Minds, machines, bodies and worlds in science fiction”, he is interested in the philosophy of science and its relation to the imaginary. His recent research areas include the philosophy of mathematics in France in the 20th century, the history and philosophy of logic as exemplified in Gödel, the image of the machine in science and literature, and criticism of the idea of consciousness.

Villa Gillet Series: Jen Davis in Conversation with Pierre Cassou-Noguès :

Monday, January 31, 6:30PM
Aperture Gallery

Click here to purchase the Regeneration2: Tomorrow’s Photographers Today

Buy the Aperture limited-edition photograph from Aperture

A sheet from Photographic Memory and one from Alex Webb’s The Suffering of Light on press in Hong Kong.

Photo by Alex Webb

A test of the cover for Photographic Memory before the images have been applied.

With our spring titles starting to print, it is a busy time for Aperture. Both Photographic Memory, which explores the role of the photo album in the history of photography, and Alex Webb’s newest monograph, The Suffering of Light, a survey of thirty years of his career, are on press together at the same printer. Alex and his wife, Rebecca Norris Webb, sent me a snapshot from Hong Kong of two press sheets, one from each book, stacked together at the plant. Read about their experience on press with Alex’s book.

Though printing marks the start of the book’s life in the world, it is often a bittersweet moment for me, as an editor, because it signals the end of the bookmaking process, which is the most fun and rewarding part of my job. I like to think that when a book has been a pleasure to create, this shows in the final product. At least I hope this is the case for Photographic Memory, which I’ve been working on for two years in collaboration with the Library of Congress and author Verna Curtis, a curator of photography there. It’s been an amazing experience. I’ve had the opportunity to spend time with handmade albums by some of photography’s most important figures—like F. Holland Day, Edward Sherriff Curtis, and Walker Evans—and to gain new insight through Verna’s expertise. So, in turn, will those who read the book! A few of my favorites include an album by Leni Riefenstahl of the 1936 Olympics that culminates in a spectacular diving sequence; an album that Jim Goldberg made in a registry book from the rundown California hotel where he shot portraits of the inhabitants; an extraordinary family album by Danny Lyon; and an album containing beautiful, almost haunting mug-shots from a Philippine Prison in 1916.

I was thrilled to receive a test of the cover in the office, struck by how handsome it looked even without the tip-on photos in place and also by how different it became as a real thing, as opposed to the printouts and PDFs I had grown accustomed to poring over. Watching the book make this transition from files to object is magical, not unlike photography itself.
—Denise Wolff

Mug-shots from the 1916 Bureau of Prisons Album

Alex Webb was featured in Aperture Magazine 181 and Aperture Foundation published his book Istanbul: City of a Hundred Names.

Click here to purchase Aperture Magazine 181

Click here to purchase Alex Webb’s Istanbul: City of a Hundred Names

This week join Aperture for a number of exciting photography events!

Jill Magid,” I Can Burn Your Face”, neon. 2008

Images, Surveillance and Power
Confounding Expectations: Photography in Context Panel Discussion

Aperture, the photography department in the School of Art, Media, and Technology at Parsons, and the Vera List Center for Art and Politics at The New School present a provocative new panel discussion Images, Surveillance, and Power. The objective of this panel is to explore the use of contemporary digital technologies in explore the relationship between images, surveillance, and power. Featured artists include Trevor Paglen whose book Invisible: Covert Operations and Classified Landscapes was released by Aperture this year, Jill Magid alongside moderator Tom Vanderbilt.

Images, Surveillance and Power
Confounding Expectations: Photography in Context Panel Discussion
Wednesday, December 8, 7:00 pm

The New School
Tishman Auditorium
66 West 12th Street
New York, New York

Photo copyright Bruce Davidson/Magnum Photos

An Evening With Bruce Davidson: Artist Talk and Book Signing

In partnership with Levi’s® Photo Workshop, Aperture Foundation is pleased to present an evening with Bruce Davidson. Aperture magazine first published the work of master photographer Bruce Davidson in 1969. In the subsequent forty-one years, he has been included in numerous issues of the magazine, featured through Aperture-published monographs such as Subway (1986), Central Park (1995), and Portraits (1999). Davidson will show an overview of his life’s work-including the series mentioned above-and answer questions. A book signing exclusive to his retrospective, Outside/Inside (Steidl, 2010), will be held following the talk.

An Evening With Bruce Davidson
Thursday, December 9, 7:00 pm

FREE but seating is limited

Levi’s® Photo Workshop
18 Wooster Street
New York, New York

Photo copyright William Christenberry

William Christenberry: Kodachromes Book Party

Celebrate on the occasion of the release of master photographer William Christenberry’s new monograph William Christenberry: Kodachromes, including a book signing with the artist. The first publication to showcase the artist’s stunning and previously unknown body of work produced with a 35 mm kodachrome slide film.

William Christenberry: Kodachromes Book Party
Friday, December 10, 6:00pm-8:00pm

Please RSVP to events@aperture.org

Aperture Bookstore and Gallery
547 West 27th, 4th floor
New York, New York

Photo by Robert Capa

This week at NYU, the International Center of Photography and the Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives will present a two-day symposium Committed Journalism, focusing on Robert Capa, Gerda Taro and Chim (David Seymour)’s photo reportage of the Spanish Civil War as well as photojournalism in a broader geographical and historical context.

The conference will kick off with panel discussion Photojournalism: Current Commitments with Pulitzer Prize winning photojournalist Todd Heisler, New York Times Deputy Picture editor Meaghan Looram, Wall Street Journal Photo Editor Julien Jourdes, Photojournalist Julie Platner, MediaStorm founder Brian Storm, Photojournalist Walter Astrada and panel moderator Fred Ritchin of NYU. The Second day of the conference will feature respective panel’s The Mexican Suitcase and The Contents of the Suitcase featuring Curator of ICP exhibit The Mexican Suitcase Cynthia Young, ICP Chief Curator Brian Wallis, NYU’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute’s Susie Linfield, ICP Associate curator Kristen Lubben, curator and scholar Carole Naggar, Oberlin College proffessor Sebastiaan Faber and panel moderators Jo Labanyi and Juan Salas of NYU. The conference will close on the second day with panel Photojournalism for Humanitarian Works featuring Doctor’s Without Border’s Jason Cone, Photojournalist Ashley Gilbertson, Human Rights Watch’s Emma Daly, and photojournalist Moises Saman.

Click here for more information about the Committed Photojournalism Symposium

Comitted Photojournalism
Day one: 6:00pm – 8:30pm December 2nd
Day two: 2:00pm – 8:30pm December 3rd, 2010

NYU
The King Juan Carlos I of Spain Center, NYU
53 Washington Square South, Suite 201
New York, New York

One of the most rewarding parts of being a work-scholar under Lesley Martin, Publisher and Book Editor at Aperture, is the opportunity to sit in on discussions between the editor, designer, and artist. Throughout the course of producing a book, these contributors have regular meetings to form the concept of the publication starting the original intent of the artist. It is always fascinating to see how much the design process can enhance the interpretation of an artist’s work. These factors really differentiate the experience of photographs as personal, handheld objects as opposed to large prints displayed in a gallery or online representations.

Layout spread by Andrew Sloat

One of Editorial’s current projects is the forthcoming Aperture monograph by artist Penelope Umbrico. Because of the appropriative nature of Penelope’s work, unlike a typical monograph with one essay and perhaps an introduction, her book will include a variety of essays taken from previously published sources that have added to and relate in some way with her process.  Even though the design and production of a book takes place mostly on a computer screen, in order to determine the sequence we printed thumbnails of each spread of text and artwork. While this cut-and-paste process might seem elementary, it was an effective way to work freely and bounce ideas off each other without having to make any final decisions. Being able to move pieces around with our hands was a great way to visualize the different possibilities.

The making of an Aperture book is a truly collaborative process-in this case, a collaboration made all the more unique in that Penelope approached the book object as an installation space for her work. She took the lead in the process by pairing texts and artwork based on their relation to each other, questioning decisions and proposing fresh ideas. Our designer, Andrew Sloat, worked with her to shape the conceptual framework for the book and then proposed typographic, spatial, and aesthetic choices to uphold that concept. The editor, Lesley Martin, helped refine their decisions on sequence and selection of images and guided the overall direction of the project as a whole. While much of being an Editorial Work-Scholar can rely on organization and wrangling the different parts needed to complete the whole, the times spent watching the creative process occur make each book project come alive. It is constantly exciting to be part of the team mediating between the artist’s original vision and the compiled product released to the public.

Stay tuned for the release of Penelope’s first monograph, Penelope Umbrico (Photographs) in June 2011.

Cover design by Andrew Sloat

See more of Penelope’s work here

See more of Andrew’s work here

Chelsea Deklotz is an Editorial Work-Scholar. She is a Graphic Design and Photography graduate from UW-Milwaukee. Her favorite Aperture books are Sally Mann: Immediate Family and Paolo Ventura: Winter Stories. She enjoys exploring her Brooklyn neighborhood and can often be found buried in the stacks at the Strand.

Click here for more information about Aperture’s Work Scholar Program

Image by Daniel Gordon

Daniel Gordon Artist Talk at Aperture

Artist Daniel Gordon will discuss his large-scale color photographs and unique process at Aperture tomorrow as part of the Parsons Lecture series. Gordon’s work was most recently featured in MoMA/PS1′s Greater NY show. The artist’s collage imagery which has been described by Conscientious blog’s Joerg Colberg as falling in the “somewhat disturbing part of the spectrum,” has been exhibited internationally in museums and galleries.

Parsons Lecture Series: Daniel Gordon
6:30 PM, Tuesday, November 30th

Aperture Gallery and Bookstore
547 West 27th Street
New York, New York

Image by Hank Willis Thomas

A Conversation with Leslie Hewitt and Hank Willis Thomas

Tomorrow evening at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, artists Leslie Hewitt and Hank Willis Thomas will appear in conversation with Eva Respini, associate curator of MoMA’s photography department. This talk is the latest installment of the museum’s panel discussion series Conversations: Among Friends which brings artists, scholars and curators together in consideration of Art’s political and social contexts. Leslie Hewitt, was featured in Aperture published essay collection Words Without Pictures. Hank Willis Thomas’ monograph Pitch Blackness was released by Aperture in 2008.

Click here to buy tickets

A Conversation with Leslie Hewitt and Hank Willis Thomas
November 30, 6:45 pm doors,

The Museum of Modern Art
11 West 53rd Street
New York, New York

Image by Richard Misrach

Richard Misrach at SF Camerawork

Richard Misrach’s book tour for recent release and critically acclaimed publication Destroy This Memory continues tomorrow night at SF Camerawork in San Francisco. Recently called a “Masterpiece” by writer Geoff Dyer in the Financial Times, Destroy This Memory presents an affecting reminder of the physical and psychological impact of Hurricane Katrina capturing the grafitti and messages scrawled by survivor’s on walls during the Hurricane’s tragic aftermath. The talk will be followed by a book signing and artist’s reception.

Lecture and Book Signing with Richard Misrach
November 30th, 7:00 pm

SF Camerawork
657 Mission Street 2nd Floor
San Francisco, CA

On Tuesday, November 22, in Milan, author, editor and founder of Goliga Books Ivan Vartanian will give a talk on Japanese Photobooks of the 1960s and ’70s (Vartanian curated Aperture’s 2009 survey book Japanese Photobooks of the 1960′s and 70s) at the Micamera bookstore. Over the course of the evening Vartanian will be showing some 20 photobooks from this pivotal moment in the medium’s history, discussing printing techniques, design and layout, typography as well as the societal and political issues that were at play. During the 1960s and ’70s the photobook came to be considered the final form of a photographers work leading to a books-making renaissance during which photographers such as Nobuyoshi Araki, Eikoh Hosoe, Shomei Tomatsu, Takuma Nakahira among others made many classic, experimental and daring works that remain influential today.

An Evening with Ivan Vartanian
Tuesday November 23rd, 7:00 pm

Micamera Bookstore
Via Medardo Rosso, 19
Milan, Italy
p: +02.45.48.15.69

Click here to purchase Japanese Photo Books of the 1960s and 70s

Click here to purchase Eikoh Hosoe’s Kamaitachi

Aperture is honored to be recognized by the Lucie Awards as the 2010 Photography Magazine of the year. In addition to giving out awards in a range of categories, last nights reception at Lincoln Center in New York paid tribute to photographers Tina Barney, Howard Bingham, James Drake, Graciela Iturbide, Lee Tanner as well as photography organizations Eddie Adams Workshop, Center for Photography at Woodstock and composer Michael Nyman for his photography and film work. Congratulations to fellow winners and nominees!

Artist Dulce Pinzón and Aperture Board of Directors Chairman, Celso Gonzales-Falla

◄ Back

Next ►

Picture 1 of 4

Despite a tornado in Brooklyn and rain in Manhattan the September 16th opening reception for the Paul Strand in Mexico Exhibition as well as the En Foco curated Mexico + Afuera: Contemporary Mexican and Mexican-American Voices and Selections from En Foco’s Permanent Collection at the Aperture Gallery and Bookstore was a terrific success. Guests were served margaritas and cold Dos Equis, provided by the Mexican Cultural Institute and there was a great turn out of photographers, friends, family and enthusiasts. In addition to the exhibitions on view at Aperture a satellite exhibition Paul Strand: The Mexican Portfolio featuring twenty gravure plates by Strand is on view at the Bronx Museum. To celebrate, this weekend the Bronx Museum of the Arts is hosting Family Affair: Viva La Vida with family-friendly music, food, and more to help kids learn about this historical happening. Activities and exhibition tours are also to take place.

For more pictures from the event check out Aperture’s facebook album.

Paul Strand in Mexico
On View at Aperture Gallery September 9th – November 13th, 2010

Mexico + Afuera: Contemporary Mexican and Mexican-American Voices and Selections from En Foco’s Permanent Collection
Exhibition on view: September 16-October 21 2010

Aperture Gallery
547 West 27th St, 4th floor
New York, New York

Also on view at the Bronx Museum of the Arts, presented by Aperture
Paul Strand: The Mexican Portfolio
September 9th, 2010 – January 2nd, 2011

Bronx Museum of the Arts
1040 Grand Concourse
Bronx, New York

A Paul Strand in Mexico symposium will take place on October 15–16, 2010. There, James Krippner, author and co-curator of Paul Strand in Mexico, will bring together a distinguished group of international scholars and practitioners from Mexico, the U.K., and the U.S. to discuss Strand’s output during his sojourn in Mexico in the context of Latin-American modernism, revolutionary politics and film of the 1930s, Mexican-American identity, and other topics. Screenings of the newly restored versions of the classic Strand films Redes and Manhatta (1921), and a viewing of the José Clemente Orozco murals at the New School—the only public commission by a Mexican muralist remaining in New York City—will take place as part of the symposium events.