Automaton #06, 2010. © Paolo Ventura

The Automaton of Venice

Exhibition on view:
September 8th–October 15th, 2011

Hasted Kraeutler:
537 West 24th Street, Ground Floor
New York, NY
(212) 627-0006

The Automaton of Venice by Paolo Ventura is the upcoming exhibit at the Hasted Kraeutler gallery. Using his own hand-made miniature sets and figurines, Italian photographer Paolo Ventura creates fictional photographic narratives set in his native country. Ventura’s series Winter Stories is a staged narrative revolving around a carnival set in a Northern Italian village.  Aperture published Winter Stories as a monograph and a limited-edition book and print box set. Ventura’s work was also featured in Aperture magazine issue 203.

Paolo Ventura is also one of the many artists featured in our upcoming 2011 Benefit & Auction. Click here to preview artworks and start bidding!

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

Benefit Honoree Bruce Davidson‘s photograph Boys at the Lake, Central Park is one of the many exciting items up for auction at this year’s Benefit. The black and white image depicts four boys climbing on overhanging branches, starkly silhouetted against the Manhattan skyline. The photographer writes, of the image, “I discovered these young children swinging on low branches of trees over the lake. They seemed very free to me and comfortable as I made a few panoramic exposures. I thanked them and continued walking along.”

“The layers of life are very deep within Central Park, and no one will ever finish photographing Central Park. [...] I used a panoramic camera with a rotating drum scan for much of the work in the park because Olmstead saw the park as a proscenium that moved, like during a carriage ride, or strolling, so I needed that 150 degree view.”

Bruce Davidson (born in Oak Park, Illinois, 1933) is considered one of America’s most influential photographers. He began taking photographs when he was ten, and studied at the Rochester Institute of Technology and the Yale University School of Design. In 1958 he became a member of Magnum Photos, and in 1961 he received a Guggenheim Fellowship to document the civil rights movement. After a solo exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in 1966, followed by a National Endowment for the Arts grant in 1967, Davidson spent two years photographing one block in East Harlem, resulting in East 100th Street. A solo exhibition of this work was curated by John Szarkowski for the Museum of Modern Art in 1970. In 1980, after living in New York City for twenty-three years, Davidson began his startling color series of urban life in Subway. Davidson received a second National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in 1980, and an Open Society Institute Individual Fellowship in 1998. He received this year an Honorary Doctorate in Fine Arts from the Corcoran College of Art and Design. His work has been shown at the International Center of Photography, New York; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; Palais de Tokyo, Paris; Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.; Museum Reattu, Arles, France; Burden Gallery (Aperture), New York; Parco Gallery, Tokyo; and New-York Historical Society.

Click here to preview artworks from the Auction and to bid online

Click here to purchase tickets to the Benefit and for more information

Click here to see Bruce Davidson’s new edition of his classic book Subway, to be published by Aperture this Fall

Busch Memorial Stadium, 1978. © Joel Meyerowitz

Exhibition on view:
August 4–September 10, 2011

Bonni Benrubi Gallery:
41 East 57th Street, 13th Floor
New York, NY
(212) 888-6007

The Bonni Benrubi Gallery is currently exhibiting a diverse group show of 20th Century and contemporary photography that includes the work of Joel Meyerowitz. Aperture published Meyerowitz’s book Legacy: The Preservation of Wilderness in New York City Parks and the related limited-edition box set and portfolio.

Untitled © Jason Lazarus

We are excited to introduce this limited-edition print, Untitled by Jason Lazarus to our collecting audience. The photograph is drawn from the ongoing series 2004-present, in which Lazarus utilizes the conceptual self-portrait as a mode of personal and cultural investigation. Whether personally, politically, or culturally oriented, the photographic works are consistently tied back to the artist’s insistence on using contemporary photography as a conceptual parameter with which to investigate. The sometimes visually disparate results beckon the viewer to actively navigate the place where, conceptually, the images coalesce.  This place is not only filled with the personal and the public, but an uncertainty that seeks to empathize with an audience in the predicament of the same-shared world.

Lazarus collaborated with Aperture earlier this year on his Too Hard To Keep photo archive. Visitors were encouraged to bring in sentimental photographs that were too hard to keep, but too meaningful to destroy. In addition to being added to the project’s ongoing blog, an installation of the images was on view at Aperture Gallery, and was also part of a group exhibition at the Queens Museum of Art.

Jason Lazarus (b.1975) received his MFA in Photography in 2003 and has actively exhibited around the country and abroad while teaching photography part-time at Columbia College and the School of the Art Institute in Chicago. Notable honors include an Illinois Arts Council Fellowship award, 2009; the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Award, Emerging Artist, 2008; and the Emerging Artist Artadia Grant in 2006. Jason’s work can be found in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Milwaukee Museum of Art, and the Bank of America LaSalle Photography collection among many 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.

Interrogation et interrupteur, de la série en cours de route (detail), 2010, © Corine Lemieux

Lucidity. Inward Views:
September 8–October 9, 2011
Numerous events and exhibits in several locations throughout Montreal, Canada.

Pre-Launch Party:
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
6:00–10:00 pm

Arsenal
2020 William (Corner of Canning and Notre-Dame W.)
(514) 390-0383

$50

Event Launch Party:
Thursday, September 8, 2011
6:00–11:00 pm

Arsenal
2020 William (Corner of Canning and Notre-Dame W.)
(514) 390-0383

FREE

Lucidity. Inward Views is the theme of the 12th presentation of the photography festival Le Mois de la Photo à Montréal. From September 8 to October 9, 2011, 25 solo exhibitions will take place all over Montreal featuring works from Canadian and international artists. The Aperture-published photographers Roger Ballen and Rinko Kawauchi will both be exhibiting their work in the festival. The work of Ballen was featured in Aperture issues 173 and 201 and Aperture also offers his limited-edition print Hideway.  Kawauchi’s work was featured in Aperture issue 177 and Aperture recently published her book Illuminance. Aperture also offers two of her limited-edition prints, Untitled, from Illuminance and Untitled, 2011.

Both the Ballen and Kawauchi exhibitions will be presented at the Arsenal, from September 8 to October 9.

© Stephen Shames

Stephen Shames spent over twenty years photographing young boys growing up in the Bronx. Although the project started as a simple photojournalism assignment, Shames quickly became fascinated by the neglected New York borough and continued to document the vibrant streets. The fruits of his labor are finally being published as a digital monograph titled Bronx Boys (FotoEvidence). The unconventional format provides universal access to readers from around the world, as well as options to zoom in on images for close viewing.

Stephen Shames worked with Aperture for his book The Black Panthers, commemorating the fortieth anniversary of the Party. The Black Panthers Portfolio, an accompanying set of photographs is now on sale! Visit the Black Panthers microsite.

Shames is founder of Lead Uganda, which puts AIDS orphans and child soldiers into school in Uganda. He is represented by Steven Kasher Gallery, New York, and Polaris Images. He currently resides in Brooklyn.

View the above video and hear about Kitintale, a project by photographer Yann Gross. Kitintale, located in the Kampala area of Uganda is the first East African skatepark constructed by local youngsters and home to a subculture that Gross has been documenting for some years now. Gross has been leading efforts to build a new half-pipe and community center. To support this project, visit Yann’s page on Emphas.is, a site dedicated to crowdfunding visual journalism.

Click here to learn more and get involved with Yann Gross’ Kitintale project! You can also read more on TIME Lightbox.

A limited-edition from this series is available exclusively through Aperture  Christine Sawunda, from Kitintale 2008.

Yann Gross’ Lavina series was featured in Aperture Magazine issue 202.

Curious about those two gorgeous limited-editions featured in Aperture’s recent newsletter? Here we provide an in-depth look at two of Aperture’s most special offerings this season: Rinko Kawauchi‘s Illuminance Limited-Edition Box Set and Jordan Tate‘s New Work #42.

© Jordan Tate

New Work #42 is a print by Aperture Portfolio Prize finalist Jordan Tate. This photograph is included in Tate’s thought-provoking series, New Work, which investigates the process of image making and the role new technology plays in contemporary photography.

Tate’s work belongs to a growing group of photographers indebted to predecessors Christopher Williams and James Welling. He pushes the conversation beyond nostalgia and squarely into the present, however, by indulging in screen-based images and non-traditional output methods like lenticular screens, animated gifs, and 3-D anaglyphs. His images frequently focus on indicators of an image in the making, such as this photograph of a Polaroid that could easily be an exposure/lighting test for a studio shoot. New Work offers a compelling and quirky exploration of the work involved in new photography.

© Rinko Kawauchi

Rinko Kawauchi‘s Illuminance Limited-Edition Box Set includes a specially bound copy of the artist’s monograph Illuminance (Aperture, 2011) and two beautiful photographs of images found in the book, all presented in a clothbound case. The highly anticipated monograph is the latest volume of Kawauchi’s work and the first to be published outside of Japan. Gorgeously produced as a clothbound volume with Japanese binding, this impressive compilation of mostly previously unpublished images is proof of Kawauchi’s unparalleled, unique sensibility and her ongoing appeal to the lovers of photography.

Kawauchi’s work has frequently been lauded for its nuanced palette and offhand compositional mastery, as well as its ability to incite wonder via careful attention to tiny gestures and the incidental details of her everyday environment. In Illuminance, she continues her exploration of the extraordinary in the mundane, drawn to the fundamental cycles of life and the seemingly inadvertent, fractal-like organization of the natural world into formal patterns, as evidenced by the photographs included in this very special set.

You can also shop online for even more limited-edition books and prints.

Paris Street View #7, 2009. © Michael Wolf

Hail Traveler! The Photographer as Tourist, and the Tourist as Subject

Exhibition on View:
July 7–August 12, 2011

Rick Wester Fine Art:
511 W 25th Street, Suite 205
New York, NY
(212) 255-5560

The new exhibit at RWFA, Hail Traveler! The Photographer as Tourist, and the Tourist as Subject, focuses on the wandering spirit of photography. The exhibit features an eclectic group of photographers, including artists published by Aperture: Robert Adams has been featured in several issues of Aperture (most recently 180) and his Aperture books include Along Some Rivers, Summer Nights, and The New West; the work of Richard Avedon was featured in issue 188 and the upcoming book The Unseen Eye; Hiroshi Sugimoto’s was featured in issue 178 and he contributed an essay to the book Setting Sun; and Aperture offers Michael Wolf’s book The Transparent City and three of his limited-edition prints A039, TC Composite #1, and Nine Rooms.