Photographer Michael Wolf gives Artforum’s Brian Sholis 500 words on his experience creating The Transparent City, which is now on view at the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago. Wolf began his project documenting Asia’s booming cities, focusing solely on architecture until he discovered a chance moment captured in his image.

“One evening I was looking at a photograph I had shot and I saw in it a man giving me the middle finger. In the exact moment he made that gesture I pressed the shutter, even though I had probably been standing there for twenty minutes.”

By zooming in, Wolf’s photographs achieved another whole dimension and purpose which he equates to a Hopper-esque aesthetic.

Read the full interview here at Artforum and be sure to check out The Transparent City, on view at the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago through January 31, 2009.

Museum of Contemporary Photography
Columbia College Chicago
600 S. Michigan Ave
Chicago, Illinois

The Transparent City is also available in hardcover here, through Aperture.

Don’t miss your chance to see Invasion 68 Prague: Josef Koudelka on view at the Katzen Arts Center, American University Museum through December 28, 2008. This exhibition marks the occasion of the fortieth anniversary of the Soviet-led invasion of Prague and is presented by Aperture and Magnum.

These remarkable works made during that one historic week were smuggled into the United States, and are what earned Koudelka a prestigious Robert Capa Award, which he accepted anonymously.

According to The Washington Post:

“In his Prague pictures, he [Koudelka] mined the visual language of the Renaissance and romanticism to reframe that week-long struggle into a battle worthy of the ages. At the Katzen, several key images stretch five feet high, their scale amplifying their majesty.”

Admired for their almost biblical formal qualities, these emotionally charged black and white photographs showcase an incredibly tumultuous moment in history.

Invasion 68 Prague: Josef Koudelka

Exhibition on View:
Thursday, November 13, 2008 –Sunday, December 28, 2008

American University Museum
Katzen Arts Center
4400 Massachusetts Avenue, NW
(202) 855-1300

FREE

View and buy the Aperture book here for 30% off.

Now on view at the Contemporary Museum in Baltimore, is the Aperture exhibition Class Pictures, photographs by Dawoud Bey which depicts high-school teenagers from a wide economic, social, and ethnic spectrum. Through intense attention to their poses and gestures—Bey created a highly diverse group portrait of a generation that intentionally challenges teenage stereotypes. The collection consists of forty 40 x 30 inch color prints from various high-schools throughout the country along with statements from each of the subjects. These striking, large-scale works offer unusually respectful and perceptive portraits that establish Bey as one of the best portraitists at work today.

Coinciding with the Aperture exhibition at the Contemporary Museum another portrait show that explores themes of race, class and identity over the centuries will be on view at the Walters Art Museum, co-curated by Dawoud Bey and 12 high school students. The exhibition is the result of a three-week summer residency, during which Bey and the teens selected historic drawings, paintings, and portrait miniatures from the Walters’ private collection to position alongside 10 similarly evocative portraits by Bey. Read more details on the collaborative curatorial project titled  The Portrait Re/Examined: A Dawoud Bey Project on Whats Going On? Dawoud’s Blog.

Read The Baltimore Sun article here:  A portrait of Students as young Walters curators

Check out another great post from Dawoud titled Advice To A Young Artist.

Dawoud and Carrie Mae Weems will be speaking  on Martin Luther King Day, January 19, 3:00 p.m. the day before the presidential inauguration at the Walters Museum.

Dawoud Bey: Class Pictures
December 13-February 21, 2009
Contemporary Museum
100 W. Centre Street, Mount Vernon
410-783-5720

Portraits Re/ Examined:
A Dawoud Bey Project
December 13-February 16, 2009
Walters Art Museum
600 N. Charles St., Mount Vernon
410-547-9000

View and buy the Aperture book here for 30% off.

Buy book signed by Dawoud Bey!

Heads up to all photo book collectors:

Aperture is reissuing a limited edition of Barakei, as well as the next two books to our popular Curated Collection, available exclusively online.

In 1963, controversial author Yukio Mishima and photographer Eikoh Hosoe put the finishing touches on their masterful collaboration Barakei (Killed by Roses), part photographic performance, part surreal portrait of Mishima as both iconoclast and self-mythologist. The original edition, designed by Kohei Sugiura, famously established the touchstone for two subsequent editions in 1971 and 1985.Aperture is delighted to reissue this faithfully reproduced facsimile of the 1963 classic, making available once again one of the most infamous and intriguing photo books of the twentieth century. This edition is exquisitely produced by the Japanese art shop NADiff, in close consultation with Eikoh Hosoe.

This reissue of Barakei is published in a limited edition of five hundred copies so get yours while they last!

Aperture Curated Collection:

The Chance is Higher, Photographs by Ari Marcopoulos is a thoughtfully designed volume produced by David Strettell–aka Dashwood Books, who understands the careful attention it takes to create a book that honestly reflects the sensibility of the artist. The texture and ambience of this publication is rough, raw, and supremely gorgeous. As David describes it, the pages “are not Xeroxes themselves but beautiful reproductions of them. An artist’s book that seamlessly combines photographs of Marcopoulos’s family, skate pictures, graffiti, landscape and portraiture. Ari feels it is his best book to date and I am very proud of how it came out. Working together with the designer Gilles Gavillet, we were looking to produce something that felt very fine but with a punk/street sensibility.  It was pretty dangerous territory but I feel we really pulled it off.”

Oliver Sieber has photographed a variety of pop-cultural niches over the years—from Teds in Germany to Rockabilly fans in Japan. In Character Thieves, Sieber has focused on European manifestations of the “Cosplay” subculture, where participants dress up in costumes—and live part of their lives—as characters from Japanese video games, animated films, and graphic novels. This volume was produced by Böhm/Kobayashi Publishers in collaboration with one of our favorite German independent publishers and booksellers, Markus Schaden.

Two Callas, c. 1925, Imogene Cunningham

Today is the last day that you can order from aperture.org and receive Ground shipping for Christmas delivery. The Holiday Sale continues with 30% off Books, 15% off Limited-Edition Photographs, and 50% off Gift Subscriptions to Aperture magazine. A few items are exempted from the sale, but most of our new season of limited-edition photographs were just added, including prints from the Imogene Cunningham Trust, Paul Fusco, and Takashi Homma.

It’s that time of year once again!  Jörg Colberg from the fine-art photography blog Conscientious announces his picks for Best Photo Books of 2008. Thanks for highlighting Aperture’s The Places We Live!

Colberg notes:

Jonas Bendiksen’s The Places We Live shows the “apartments” of inhabitants of slums – a single room, with the fold-out pages showing each wall. The photos come along with the voices of the people living in those places (in the form of text).

Also check out the exhibition BARE curated by Jörg M. Colberg at Michael Mazzeo Gallery.

Featuring Rachael Dunville, Amy Elkins, Ethan Aaro Jones, Richard Learoyd, Jennifer Loeber, Hellen van Meene, Josh Quigley, Richard Renaldi, Jessica Roberts, Alec Soth, Shen Wei, former Aperture work scholar Carmen Winant.

Michael Mazzeo Gallery
526 W.26 Street / Suite 209 / NYC 10001

World renowned Magnum photographer Martin Parr will be at The Strand book store to discuss and sign copies of his latest 2-volume publication Parrworld: Objects and Postcards. This book features a glimpse into the photographer’s personal collection of over 20,000 postcards and themed objects. Parr’s work is known for its often tongue-in-cheek commentaries on issues pertaining to modern society and consumerism. This beautiful box set would also make an excellent holiday gift!

Artist Talk and Book Signing
Tuesday, December 16, 6:30 p.m.

The Strand Bookstore
828 Broadway
New York, New York
(212) 473-1452
FREE

Magnum Holiday Book Party

Book signing and Reception
Monday, December 15, 2008, 7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.

Aperture Gallery
547 West 27th Street
New York, New York
(212) 505-5555

FREE

Join Aperture Monday evening as we host the Magnum Holiday Book Party, with over twenty Magnum photographers including Elliott Erwitt, Susan Meiselas, Martin Parr, Paul Fusco, Larry Towell, Martine Franck, Paolo Pellegrin, Richard Kalvar, Mark Power, Peter Marlow, and many more. Limited-edition prints, rare and new books will be available for purchase. A special gift book by Alec Soth is included with every purchase.

Last night at the annual Aperture Holiday Party a polaroid camera was swung around to various photographers who attended to take a photo of whatever they pleased, creating a collective document of the experience.

Elena Dorfman

Martha Rosler

Cara Philips

Hank Willis Thomas

Robin Schwartz by Amelia Forman

Stefan Ruiz

Larry Ossei-Mensah

Michael Mazzeo

Andrew Hetherington with Stefan Ruiz