The winter issue of Aperture magazine, #197, explores the important relationship between photography and the performative. Writer Greil Marcus looks at that relationship as he considers the score for Nan Goldin’s seminal slide show, The Ballad of Sexual Dependency.  Carrie Mae Weems’s projects are just as personal; she uses her films and photographs to express the nuances of her existence as a black woman and explore the undercurrents of power.

Richard Brody, staff writer at the New Yorker, examines the photographs of Raymond Cauchetier, the renowned photographer whose documentation of the French New Wave scene offered behind-the-scenes looks at Jean-Luc Godard, Francois Truffaut, and other groundbreaking directors.

Francine Prose speaks with Maira Kalman about the artist’s use of photography and illustration; Anthony Downey discusses contemporary Iranian photographers; photographer Andrew Moore reports on the decline and decay of the city of Detroit and its surrounding areas; and innovative fashion photographer Nick Knight is interviewed by Diane Smyth on his career and process.  Also, Robert Adams revisits his classic series of nocturnes featured in his newly published edition Summer Nights, Walking, in an interview with Joshua Chuang.

Click to view web-exclusive: Anthony Downey on the June 2009 Green Revolution in Iran.

**  Reader challenge:  In which year did Nan Goldin present her groundbreaking slide show, Ballad of Sexual Dependency? **

Pick up your copy of Aperture magazine at newsstands nationwide, order issue #197,  or subscribe here.

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Aperture magazine is a finalist for a National Magazine Award in General Excellence (under 100,000 circulation), the magazine industry’s highest honor.  The awards recognize print and online magazines that consistently demonstrate superior execution of editorial objectives, innovative editorial techniques, journalistic enterprise, and imaginative design. Winners will be announced April 30. See the complete list of finalists here.

In addition, the latest issue of Aperture magazine is now available and features:

•    Intended Consequences: Rwandan Children Born of Rape
Photojournalist Jonathan Torgovnik provides and intimate look at the tragic legacy of Rwandan women who were sexually tortured by militiamen during and after the 1994 genocide, and their inheritors: children born of rape. An exhibition of this dramatic work is on view at Aperture Gallery through May 7th.
•    Sally Mann: Untitled
A selection from Mann’s latest family-focused project: intimate photographs of her husband Larry.
•    Jiang Jian: Memory and History by Vicky Goldberg
Photographer Jiang documents life in his native rural China.
Click here to see an expanded interview and additional images from the artist.
•    Photography and Human Rights by Anthony Downey
Downey discusses photographs that explore the stateless condition of the dispossessed and the plight of refugees.
•    Pertti Kekarainen: The Sensation of Seeing by Lyle Rexer
A look at the Finnish photographer’s abstract photography.
•    Look Close: The Scrapbooks of Dan Eldon and Candy Jernigan
Jessica Helfand explores the inventive journals of two artists who died tragically young.
•    William van der Weyde and the American Morality Plan by Michael Lesy
An introduction to the curious work of this little-known early-twentieth-century photographer.
•   Lise Sarfati: She
Sandra S. Philips presents a selection from Sarfati’s latest body of work, focused on the complex relationships of four women.