Last Monday, Aperture’s 2011 Benefit, Auction & SNAP! Party honored three incredibly influential figures: Bruce Davidson, Gerhard Steidl and Robert Anthione. The night had a warm and exciting atmosphere and our guests enjoyed looking at and bidding on plenty of amazing photography. In addition to the Live Auction conducted by Sotheby’s very own Denise Bethel, there was also a Silent Auction, and an Emerging Artists SNAP! Silent Auction. Aperture couldn’t have pulled this fabulous night off without the tireless support of our Board of Trustees, Benefit cochairs  Sondra Gilman, Susan Gutfreund, and Karl Lagerfeld; Auction cochairs Cathy Kaplan, Anne Stark, and Severn Taylor; and SNAP! Party cochairs artist Jowhara AlSaud, Peter Berberian of Gotham Imaging, Emily Bierman of Sotheby’s, and actor Ken Triwush. Thank you to all our generous supporters who contributed to the success of our most important fundraiser of the year!

Auction cochair Anne Stark, Aperture Chairman Celso Gonzalez-Falla, guests, Honorees Gerhard Steidl and Robert Anthoine, Benefit cochair Sondra Gilman, and Honoree Bruce Davidson.

Aperture’s Executive Director Chris Boot welcomes honorees Gerhard Steidl, Robert Anthoine, and Bruce Davidson.

Honoree Gerhard Steidl with Benefit cochair Susan Gutfreund.

Auction cochair Cathy Kaplan and guest.

Peter MacGill, Lesley A. Martin, guest, Mark Levine, and Fred Smith.

Muna Rihani, Chairman Emeritus John H. Gutfreund, guest, and Benefit cochair Susan Gutfreund.

Rachel Rimsky and SNAP! Party cochair Emily Bierman.

Alyse Archer-Coité, guest and artist Rachel Barrett enjoying the SNAP! Benefit Party.

Boys at the Lake, Central Park (1992) © Bruce Davidson/Howard Greenberg Gallery

Don’t miss out on our 2011 Benefit, Auction, and SNAP! Party! Taking place on Monday, October 17, the evening will begin with a cocktail reception and silent auction of classic and contemporary photographs. Then, a dinner, brief award ceremony, and live auction conducted by Denise Bethel, Senior Vice President and Director of Photographs, Sotheby’s. Finishing the night, there will be a Benefit Party hosted by SNAP! New Collectors Program.

Come mingle with fellow photography lovers and celebrate Aperture Foundation. We look forward to having you join us for this special event!

Click here for tickets and more information on our 2011 Benefit & Auction

Click here for tickets and more information on our 2011 SNAP! Benefit Party

Kale Road (2010, printed 2011) © Rachel Barrett

Immediately following the 2011 Benefit Dinner and Auction,  SNAP! New Collectors Program Benefit Party will kick off with live jazz by DW-40, spinning by Japanster, and a Fuji Instax Cameras Photo Op. This event is co-chaired by artist Jowhara AlSaud, Peter Berberian of Gotham Imaging, Emily Bierman of Sotheby’s, and actor Ken Triwush. The party’s main event will be an exciting Emerging Artists Auction including up and coming photographers such as Rachel Barrett whose piece Kale Road (above) will be up for bidding. Rachel Barrett writes, of her work:

“In recent years I have shifted attention to iterations of communal life among my peers for whom there is a resurgence of back to the land ideologies. Initially I was intrigued by the social and political significance of this movement and wanted to investigate further, exploring the ways in which individuals shape their own understanding of self within the context of coherence among others and among the land. This photograph is from my series “Bolinas” which delves into the small, unincorporated and largely off-the-grid community of the same name in Northern California, resting precariously on the coast of the Pacific. Dirt roads with hand-painted signs mark the pathways between a notoriously reclusive population with a rich cultural and agricultural history dating back to the 1920s, with a flowering in the late 1960s after the Summer of Love. A collective effort to clean up after an oil spill brought the people of Bolinas together, and the desire to live an intrinsically shared existence with one another and closely to the land on their own terms is how they decided to stay.

There are no longer any true communes in town but that same sharing mentality of perpetual exchange and engagement persists. My point of entry and access to the town was through a friend who started sharing a home with seven others in late 2008. Created over two years during many extended stays in which I lived in their house, I was struck by the intricacy and complexity of interconnectedness, the near seamless relationship between humans and nature, the invisible web binding moments together. I was interested primarily in the dynamic between the young women in the house and in town and the spiritual, perhaps even near religious connection they have with the landscape of this mystical place straddling two geographic plates, the past and the present, and two worlds.”

Rachel Barrett (b. 1981) received her BFA in Photography & Imaging from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts in 2003 and her MFA in Photography, Video & Related Media from the School of Visual Arts in 2008. Her work has been featured in the New York Times, PDN, Russian Esquire and other publications. She is represented by the Jennifer Schwartz Gallery in Atlanta and Gallery Stock in New York and London.

Click here for more information and to buy tickets to our 2011 SNAP! Benefit Party

Click here to preview Auction artworks and to bid online

Basil Jones (2011) © Gary Schneider

This Fall, many works by Aperture-featured photographers are being exhibited in New York City. Here is our run-down of this season’s must-see shows.

Gary Schneider: HandPrints, Johhanesburg at David Krut Projects. Made by hands’ sweat and heat interacting with film emulsion, these unusual portraits of friends and family will be on view September 8 – October 22, 2011.

Hellen van Meene at Yancey Richardson Gallery, September 8 – October 22, 2011, will exhibit the photographer’s distinct style of portraiture.

Vik Muniz at Sikkema Jenkins & Co., September 9 – October 15, 2011, focusing on paintings by the Brazilian artist.

Edward Steichen: The Last Printing at Danziger Projects, September 15 – October 29, 2011. Photographs made by George Tice, renowned photographer and Steichen’s last printer.

Social Media at Pace/MacGill, from September 16 – October 15, 2011, featuring work by Penelope Umbrico & others. Detailing the rise of social media in our visual culture, it includes Umbrico’s work Sunset Portraits From 9,623,557 Sunset Pictures which was meticulously culled from the photo-sharing website Flickr.

Simon Norfolk: Burke + Norfolk at Bonni Benrubi Gallery, September 14 – December 3, 2011, features a visual dialogue between nineteenth-century British photographer John Burke and contemporary photographer Simon Norfolk, centered in Afghanistan.

The Radical Camera: New York’s Photo League, 1936 – 1951 at The Jewish Museum from November 4 – March 25, 2011. Featuring work by Lisette Modell, Aaron Siskind, Weegee & many other photography legends.

There are also many gallery openings that are showing artists featured in our 2011 Benefit, Auction & SNAP! Party:

Sara Greenberger Rafferty at Rachel Uffner Gallery, September 7 – October 23, 2011.

Charlotte Dumas: Retrieved at Julie Saul Gallery, September 8 – October 15, 2011.

Click here to start bidding online for work by these artists and others!

Aperture’s 2011 Benefit and Auction catalog is now online and open for bidding! This year’s catalog features many talented artists, from emerging to established photographers. You can bid online through our website, and at the event on Monday, October 17th. The proceeds from our 2011 Benefit, Auction, and SNAP! Party—our most important fundraising event of the year—are essential for Aperture’s publications, exhibitions, and public programs, which provide unmatched exposure for artists and scholars working in photography.

In this clip, auction-featured photographer Sasha Rudensky explains how her work is related to her personal history. She describes her practice as being in between documentary and staged photography in a “loose way.” Rudensky also speaks about the polished, aesthetic style that emerges from the reGeneration2 artists, and her experience being a part of the group.

Rudensky’s image Red Square is part of our SNAP! Benefit Party Emerging Artists Auction. She writes, of the image:

Red Square was taken from a friend’s window in January of 2010. Initially I wanted to climb out on the roof deck in order to shoot from outside but due to heavy snowfall, the door has been barricaded. As it often happens, limitation became a source of strength, so when I set up to have the view framed by the window I realized it clarified the ideas behind the work. The iconic glitter of the red square presented as a projection, rather than a real space, sets up for the underlying theme of the project, an interweaving between illusion and fantasy as well as every day reality in post-Soviet Russia.

Stay tuned for weekly blog posts giving insight into select items from our Benefit’s Live, Silent, and Emerging Artists Auctions!

Click here to start bidding online for this work and others!

Click here for more information about our 2011 Benefit & Auction.

Moxie, 2011 © Charlotte Dumas/Julie Saul Gallery, NY

Aperture’s 2011 Benefit and Auction catalogue will be live and open for bidding next week! In the meantime, you can check out auction-featured photographer Charlotte Dumas‘ profile in the New York Times Magazine. Her Retrieved series shows retired 9/11 rescue dogs, and the above portrait Moxie will be one of the many fantastic items up for bidding.

Click here for more information about our 2011 Benefit and Auction

Join Aperture in New York for our 2011 Benefit and Auction on October 17 at the Lighthouse, Chelsea Piers.

Here’s an overview of what promises to be a memorable celebration:

We will honor artist Bruce Davidson, a Magnum Photos member and one of America’s most influential documentary photographers; Gerhard Steidl, for his outstanding skill and craftsmanship as a printer and publisher; and Robert Anthoine, Aperture Chairman Emeritus, who has dedicated over thirty years to helping lead Aperture to prominence in the field of photographic publishing;

The event will be co-chaired by Sondra Gilman, Susan Gutfreund, and Karl Lagerfeld;

Fabulous classic and contemporary photographs will be available for purchase at the evening’s live, silent and emerging artists auctions;

The SNAP! New Collectors Program Benefit Party will take place immediately following the Benefit Dinner and Auction. Cochaired by artist Jowhara AlSaud, Peter Berberian of Gotham Imaging, Emily Bierman of Sotheby’s, and actor Ken Triwush, the event will feature an exciting Emerging Artists Auction, live jazz by DW-40, and spinning by Japanster.

And, following last year’s success, we are pleased to invite Patron-level Benefit supporters to participate in a special series of events during the weekend prior to the Benefit on October 15 and 16. These include visits to the studios of leading photographers, viewings of outstanding private collections, and a cocktail reception at the home of Aperture Trustee John and his wife Susan Gutfreund. These events will provide exceptional opportunities to interact with leading artists and collectors in an intimate atmosphere.

Click here for more details and to buy tickets to the event

Click here to view images from last year’s Benefit, Auction, and Patrons’ Weekend

Click here to view images from last year’s SNAP! Benefit Party

Image caption: Central Park, 1992, by Bruce Davidson/Magnum Photos