The deadline for Aperture’s Portfolio Prize is noon tomorrow, Wednesday, July 14th! This annual open call for submissions provides a great opportunity for photographers to have their work seen by Aperture’s editors. One first prize winner will receive a $5000 cash prize, an exhibition at Aperture Gallery and more! First prize winner as well as runners up will be featured on Aperture’s website and will be announced in Aperture’s widely read newsletter.
EnFoco, the non-profit organization who’s mission is to support photographers of diverse cultures, and whom have featured in exhibition or publication work by such artists as Hank Willis Thomas, Dawoud Bey, LaToya Ruby Frazier, 2009 Aperture portfolio prize runner-up Keliy Anderson-Staley and countless more, is having a summer cocktail party and auction to benefit En Foco’s programs. Refreshments and food will served and limited edition prints by such artist’s as Phyllis Galembo and Martin Weber will be available for purchase through silent auction.
This past spring Aperture released the first comprehensive monograph of work by South African photographer Zwelethu Mthethwa. The artist’s first solo museum exhibition in New York will open at The Studio Museum in Harlem this week, accompanied by a number of opportunities to hear the artist speak and sign copies of his acclaimed book.
Thursday, July 15th join Mthethwa and associate curator of The Studio Museum in Harlem, Naomi Beckwith, in conversation amidst the setting of this momentous exhibit. On Friday, July 16th, Zwelethu will also give an artist’s talk followed by a reception and book signing at Museum of Contemporary Diasporan Arts in Brooklyn.
Zwelethu Mthethwa, the exhibition and the Aperture book, present Mthethwa’s powerful series of portraits portraying black South Africans as relentlessly dignified and defiant, even under the duress of social and economic hardship. Working in both urban and rural industrial landscapes, Mthethwa documents a range of issues pertaining to South Africa – from domestic life and the environment to landscape and labor issues.
As we approach the five-year anniversary of the destruction of Hurricane Katrina, Aperture is pleased to announce the release of Dave Anderson‘s monograph One Block: A New Orleans Neighborhood Rebuilds and related events, celebrating and considering the reconstruction of one street in New Orleans and the very nature of community and its resilience.
The portraits, still lifes and abstract images presented in One Block, documented by photographer Dave Anderson from 2006 – 2010, deliver a powerful portrait of post-Katrina as seen through the prism of a single block whose residents are attempting to build their homes.
Bruce Harris on returning to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina “When I first came back to New Orleans, there was not a sound (…) at night, it was pitch dark.”
Stacy Rockwood on volunteer-based relief and rebuilding efforts: “Our recovery came from people from all over the United States. That just gives me great hope.”
Lisa Periloux on life in New Orleans after the Hurricane “Nothing is written in stone. I just kind of go day by day and hope for the best.”
Over the next few weeks join Aperture at events in New York and in Louisiana on the occasion of the release of One Block and in commemoration of the ongoing efforts of New Orleans and its citizens to rebuild their city.
Antiphotojournalism, a new exhibition at La Virreina Centre de l’Imatge in Barcelona, identifies recent transformations and expansions of the field of photojournalism. Curated by Charles Guerra and Aperture magazine contributing editor Thomas Keenan, the exhibition brings together works that have challenged conventions of the practice and have created unexpected relationships between the image and social struggle.
Visit the Aperture Art Tent during ArtHamptons next weekend, where we will have selections from our books and limited-edition photographs on display.
On Saturday, July 10 a special reception celebrating artist Paolo Ventura, on the occasion of his recently release monograph Winter Stories (Aperture, 2009) will take place!
Mark your calendar’s for Aperture’s 2010 Benefit and Auction and help us salute luminaries in the field of photography. This year’s honorees include photographer Richard Misrach; collector and philanthropist Steven Ames; and gallerist Julie Saul. The event will be co-chaired by Sondra Gilman and Celso Gonzalez-Falla. Our first-ever benefite party, hosted by SNAP!, Aperture Young Patrons Program, will be co-chaired by Carolyn Francis, artist Hank Willis Thomas, and Giovanni Tomaselli of Polaroid, sponsor of SNAP!
Proceeds from Aperture’s Benefit, Auction, and Party are essential for maintaining the quality of Aperture’s publications, exhibitions, and education programs. Join us!
Newly available from Aperture’s Limited Edition print program is a new image from artist Jowhara AlSaud. Ten/Ten from AlSaud’s Out of Line series explores censorship in Saudi Arabia and it’s effects on visual communication through a practice of transforming personal photographs with line drawings, circumventing and commenting on some of the cultural taboos associated with photography and the personal portrait.
AlSaud’s work has recently been seen in several group exhibitions including the Edge of Arabia show at the 2010 Berlin Biennial. Upcoming exhibitions include solo shows in Kuwait and Amsterdam as well as a group show at the Shanghai Biennale.
Last Thursday June, 24th, SNAP! Aperture Young Patron Program, sponsored by Polaroid, hosted the opening reception for States of Flux, an exhibition of Parsons BFA and MFA student work at Aperture Gallery. Polaroid cameras were circulated and guests, artists, Aperture staff and patrons documented the evening’s festivities. View the instant and fun images of the successful event in the album above.
States of Flux will be on view at Aperture Gallery through Thursday, August 12, 2010.
Detail from Untitled, 2008 by Richard Misrach
