Panthers listen to Huey P. Newton give a radio talk during Bobby Seale’s trial, New Haven, May 1970 by Stephen Shames

Photographer Stephen Shames‘ photographs taken during the height of the struggle for civil rights in America, will be on view in two upcoming exhibitions in Chicago and New York.

The Black Panthers: Making Sense of History, an Aperture exhibition will travel to The Dusable Museum of African American History in Chicago, presenting Shames’ behind-the-scenes photographs of the Black Panther Party. The exhibition opens this week and will include 48 of Shame’s photographs as well as Black Panther artifacts from the museum’s archive. This exhibition accompanies Shames’ monograph The Black Panthers (Aperture, 2006).

In addition nine of Shames’ images of Panther Party co-founder Huey Newton are included in a group show titled, Between the Bricks and the Blood: Transgressive Typologies currently up at Steven Kasher Gallery in New York.

The Black Panthers: Making Sense Of History
April 23 – August 6, 2010
Dusable Museum of African American History
750 East 56th Place
Chicago, Illinois
(410) 455-2232

Between The Bricks and The Blood
Transgressive Typologies
April 15 – May 8, 2010
Steven Kasher Gallery
521 W 23rd St,
New York, Ny, 10011

Click here to purchase Stephen Shames The Black Panthers

Click here to purchase a limited-edition Stephen Shames print

Click here to purchase the The Black Panthers limited -edition portfolio.

This past March photographer Zwelethu Mthethwa’s long-awaited, first comprehensive monograph was released by Aperture, the book spans many years of Zwelethu’s internationally celebrated career and portrays the urban and rural-industrial social landscape of South Africa. On the occasion of the book release, Zwelethu Mthethwa was joined by curator and dean of academic affairs of San Francisco Art Institute, Okwui Enwezor, in a conversation at the Aperture Gallery and Bookstore, at full capacity with well wishers, students, gallerists and fellow artists who’d come to hear this in-depth talk.

In this edited excerpt, Zwelethu Mthethwa presents his acclaimed portrait series, Interiors. Mthethwa shares his desire to create “a contemporary history” that portrays people in a humane light. Shooting primarily in the outer regions of Capetown for this series, Mthethwa paid special attention to the colorful decorations within his subjects homes and looked to show their beauty, dignity and resourcefulness despite the overcrowded living conditions of the outer-city. During their conversation, Okwui Enwezor and Zwelethu Mthethwa debate the role ethics play in the photographs and Mthethwa touches on the relationship he develops with his subjects, describing the shoot as “a difficult dance.”

View the talk in full here:

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4

Click here to purchase Zwelethu Mthethwa’s self-titled monograph

The May 1st deadline for submissions to the New York Photo Awards is approaching. Past winners include Aperture published artists Michal Chelbin and Edgar Martins!

Click here to submit to the New York Photo Awards

Aperture and the Photography Program in the School of Art, Media, and Technology at Parsons The New School for Design present a talk with Brooklyn-based artist Spencer Finch. In his renderingsof light and color, Finch unites scientific method with a poetic sensibility as he explores the mechanics and mysteries of perception.

Spencer Finch was born in 1962 and lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. He studied at the Rhode Island School of Design, Hamilton College, and Doshisha University in Kyoto, and has exhibited internationally. Finch had a major solo exhibition, What Time is it on the Sun?, at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art in 2007, which was accompanied by a monograph with essays by Susan Cross and Daniel Birnbaum. His work is held in important museum collections, including those of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.; High Museum of Art, Atlanta; Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt; and Guggenheim Museum, New York among many others.

Parsons Talk with Spencer Finch

Tuesday, April 20, 6:30 pm

FREE

Aperture Gallery & Bookstore
547 West 27 Street, 4th floor
New York, New York
(212) 505-5555

Check out this Q&A between Aperture-published artists, first seen in the February issue of Modern Painters, now on artinfo.com. James Welling asks Stephen Shore five questions about his work and process, including views on color and digital photography.

Curator and co-founder of Humble Arts Foundation, Jon Feinstein recently gave Aperture’s interns a special tour of the exhibition 31 Women in Art Photography presented by Humble Arts and Affirmation Arts. Humble Arts Foundation is an organization devoted to emerging artists of all ages and backgrounds that are making interesting and innovative work. 31 Women in Art Photography, which was recently on view at Affirmation Arts until April 10th, was Humble Arts Foundation’s second annual exhibition of women’s work and in part addresses disparities between the number of women in the field of photography compared to the number of women photographers given opportunities to exhibit.

Feinstein co-curated the show with curator and editor of Aperture’s Words Without Pictures, Charlotte Cotton. The show features work by women photographers at different stages in their careers including Aperture published photographer Robin Schwartz as well as Sarah Palmer, Emily Shur, Ann Woo and more.

Click here to find out more about Aperture’s Work Scholar Program

Click here to view Charlotte Cotton’s Words Without Pictures

Click here to view Robin Shwartz’s Amelia’s World

Dexter by Richard Renaldi

Exhibitions of Richard Renaldi’s photographic series Touching Strangers,  Fall River Boys and Figure and Ground will be on view this Spring in New York, Philadelphia, Germany and Montpellier, France.

Figure and Ground, which was published under the same title by Aperture, surveys the increasing cultural diversity of contemporary America and its changing landscape, expanding and rephrasing our visual vocabulary for what Middle America looks like. Renaldi’s Fall River Boys, which was shot over the course of nine years, portrays young men coming of age in Fall River, a small New England city, formally a major center of the textiles industry that now presents few opportunities to its residents. The monograph of Fall River Boys is featured in Aperture’s Curated Collection.

Touching Strangers
April 9 – May 28, 2010
Gallery at Hermès
691 Madison Avenue NY, NY

Fall River Boys
April 9-May 2, 2010
Sol Mednick Gallery
The University of the Arts
320 South Broad Street
Philadelphia, PA 19102

Figure and Ground and Fall River Boys
May 5-July 6, 2010
Robert Morat Gallery
Kleine Reichenstr
Hamburg, Germany

An American Dream – Between fiction and reality
Richard Renaldi: Figure and Ground
July 15-October 3, 2010
Pavillon Populaire in Montpellier
Esplanade Charles-de-Gaulle

Click here to purchase Richard Renaldi’s Figure and Ground

Click here to view more titles from Aperture’s Curated Collection

Visit Charles Lane Press

SNAP! Aperture’s young patrons program provides an opportunity for photography enthusiasts and collectors to support and participate in the arts. The affordable membership fee includes meet-the-artists events, informal educational activities, invitations to Aperture exclusive parties and salon events at collector’s homes, all to foster the growth of an exciting, vibrant community of like-minded photo enthusiasts.

Aperture’s SNAP! Out of Winter Party this past March was the latest SNAP! fiesta and it was a great success. The party was co-chaired by Jen Bekman, Christina Cahill, and Alan Stoga, and ticket proceeds helped to support the Aperture Fund for Emerging Artists. Established patrons, curators, dealers and photographers as well as newcomers to the photography community all enjoyed a night of live music by The Cangelosi Cards, tastings of fine scotch by Dewar’s and Chandon bubbly while enjoying delicious signature cakes. The event was sponsored by Polaroid and several lucky raffle winners posed for instant large format portraits shot with a rare 20×24 Polaroid Camera.

In the short clip below, view excerpts from the event:

Click here to view images from the event

Click here to view more images by Polaroid

Click here to join SNAP! Aperture’s Young Patrons Program

Unknown, Untitled, n.d.; Collection SFMOMA, gift of Gordon Bennett

The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art commemorates its 75th anniversary this year and, as part of the festivities, will host a symposium asking “is photography over?” on April 22 & 23.  Aperture-published writers on the panel include Aperture magazine contributing editor Vince Aletti and the author of the upcoming book Words Without Pictures, Charlotte Cotton. Artists on the panel include Trevor Paglen, featured in Aperture magazine 191, and Walead Beshty, featured in issue 192. You can read each participant’s answer to the question before the two-day summit where they will discuss the state of the medium.

Freshly Felled Trees by Eirik Johnson

A new exhibition of photographs from Eirik Johnson’s body of work and recently released monograph Sawdust Mountain will open at Aperture gallery April 15th and will remain on view through June 4th.

In Johnson’s words his photographs are “a melancholy love letter of sorts, my own personal ramblings.” This poetic sensibility is apparent in the images of Sawdust Mountain which consider the environmental impact and sustainability of industries reliant on the natural resources of Oregon, Washington and Northern California. Depicting towns at the heart of the worlds of logging and salmon farming in the U.S., Johnson captures the uncertainty that follows after an industry boom has ended as well as the hazy light and landscapes of the Northwest.

Eirik Johnson: Sawdust Mountain

Opening Reception:

Thursday, April 15, 6:00 – 8:00 PM

FREE

Aperture Gallery
547 West 27th Street, 4th floor
New York, New York
(212) 505 – 5555

Click here to read Ahorn Magazine’s recent interview with Eirik Johnson

Click here to purchase the monograph Sawdust Mountain

Click here to view Aperture’s Limited Edition print of Eirik Johnson’s photograph Freshly Felled Trees