Hosts: Fred Ritchin, Deborah Willis, Stephen Mayes, Melissa Harris (Wafaa Bilal, not pictured)

Aperture’s inside-out  exhibition in-progress What Matters Now? opened in its final form last Saturday night. The five Hosts: Wafaa Bilal, Melissa Harris, Stephen Mayes, Deborah Willis and Fred Ritchin, had two weeks to transform the blank walls of their areas into Proposals for a New Front Page. Their collaborative efforts yielded thought-provoking, outrage-inducing and even hopeful statements about the current state of media and photography. In addition to discussions led by the Hosts, public involvement truly made the exhibition a community effort. The Public wall currently exhibits over one hundred submissions from people worldwide, and those that could not attend the Aperture Gallery space for events and lectures joined the conversation through Twitter, Facebook and the website. The unusual form of  the What Matters Now? exhibition was an experiment on Aperture’s part, but one that produced fascinating results. Using Aperture Gallery as a meeting hub, the goal of the exhibition was to start a conversation about what we are looking at, as a society, and why. The weeks’ events and Saturday’s well-attended opening demonstrates that many are concerned with issues regarding the media: particularly trust, engagement and active readership. Fred Ritchin, the creator of What Matters Now?, even plans to continue working on creating a new way of reading, collecting disseminating information.

Although the hosts are no longer adding to their walls, the Public Wall will continue to grow. You can submit images and text online here until Thursday, September 22, 2011.

What Matters Now?: Proposals for a New Front Page
through Saturday, September 24, 2011
10:00 am – 6:00 pm

Aperture Gallery
547 West 27th Street, 4th floor
New York, New York

Left cover image: Cindy Sherman. Right cover image: Clare Strand.

Celebrating issue 200 with two dynamic covers, one from acclaimed photographer Cindy Sherman and the other from emerging artist Clare Strand!

Issue 200 includes:

Commemorating the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, photographers and long-time New Orleans residents Keith Calhoun and Chandra McCormick reveal the remnants of the tragic loss as well as the current uplifting communal spirit in the city.

An intricate link between Manhattan’s unseen past and present is depicted in photographs by Barney Kulok and further discussed by poet Max Blagg.

Recently discovered film stills from Salvador Toscano’s 1950 documentary about the 1920–17 Mexican Revolution, reveal new insight into the everyday citizen’s experience during the greatest social and political upheaval of the time.

Lucas Foglia sheds light on the unique lifestyles of Americans who detach themselves from mainstream society.

Martin Parr introduces Óscar Fernando Gómez‘s photographs of Monterrey, Mexico, framed and taken through the window of his taxi cab.

David Campany investigates emerging artist Clare Strand’s cryptic black & white images of the unknown.

Aaron Schuman looks at Mike Mandel’s playful celebrity-photographer baseball trading cards from 1974.

E.L. Doctorow talks to Eric Fischl about Fischl’s  traveling exhibition of post 9/11 work by some of the most well-known artists working today, including Chuck Close, Nan Goldin, Catherine Opie, and many more. A portfolio of the exhibition images is available for purchase here.

Subscribe to Aperture magazine now and receive a FREE book!

Click here to purchase Issue 200 with cover image by Cindy Sherman.

Click here to purchase Issue 200 with cover image by Clare Strand.

Thursday, March 4th – Sunday, March 7th, Philadelphia will be the site of The Society for Photographic Education’s 47th National conference, presented this year in collaboration with the photography organization En Foco. Entitled Facing Diversity: Leveling the Playing Field in the Photographic Arts, the conference will examine the state of diversity in the field of photography and the art world and will feature talks by Dawoud Bey, Hulleah Tsinhnahjinnie, Veronica Passalacqua and Kip Fulbeck.

Visit Aperture at Booth # 25 in the exhibition hall all at the Philadelphia Marriott Downtown — the event is open to the public.

On Friday, March 5th, from 6:00-9:00 pm, the Philadelphia Photo Arts Center will host a book signing and reception. Artists Hank Willis Thomas, Dr. Deborah Willis, John Willis, Richard Renaldi, Susan Lipper, Justin Kimball, Lisa Kereszi, David Graham and Dawoud Bey will be available to sign books.

For a schedule of the conference’s events and general information click here

Click here to buy Dawoud Bey’s Class Pictures

Click here to buy Hank Willis Thomas’ Pitch Blackness

Click here to buy Richard Renaldi’s Fall River Boys

Starting this Friday are three chances to meet photographer Hank Willis Thomas get a book signed and hear him speak about his work in New York. The first recipient of the Aperture West Book Prize, Hank will be signing copies of his first monograph, Pitch Blackness, at the ICP Museum Store this Friday, February 6. This book features his highly provocative series B®ANDED, which addresses the commodification of African-American male identity. Deborah Willis, Hank’s mother, will also be at ICP signing copies of her work Obama: The Historic Campaign in Photographs.

As part of the Eye on the Strand Contest series, Aperture is pleased to announce a special talk and book signing with Hank next Tuesday.

An exhibition titled Pitch Blackness, featuring never-before-seen work will open at  Jack Shainman Gallery Thursday, February 12.

Click here to buy a limited-edition print from Hank Willis Thomas through Aperture.

Hank Willis Thomas and Deborah Willis Booksigning
Friday, February 6, 6:00-7:30 p.m.
International Center of Photography Museum Bookstore
1133 Avenue of the Americas, New York
(212) 857-9725

Eye on the Strand Event with Hank Willis Thomas
Thursday, January 29, 7:00-8:30 p.m.
Strand Bookstore
828 Broadway, New York
(212) 473-1452

Hank Willis Thomas: Pitch Blackness

Exhibition on view: Thursday, February 12-Saturday, March 14, 2009

Opening reception: Thursday, February 12, 2009  6:00-8:00 p.m.

Jack Shainman Gallery
513 West 20th Street, New York
(212) 645-1701

Clockwise from top left: Lorna Simpson (Chuck Close, 2006); Keith Calhoun (image via Open Society Institute); Chandra McCormick (image via Open Society Insitute); Carrie Mae Weems, self-portrait, “I looked and looked and failed to see what so terrified you,” from her multimedia installation The Lousiana Project; Dawoud Bey, self-portrait; Deborah Willis (image via duke.edu); Hank Willis Thomas, portrait by Rashid Johnson.

Tuesday, November 11th at Aperture Gallery, distinguished scholar, curator, artist, and author of Obama: The Historic Campaign in Photographs Deborah Willis and her son, Hank Willis Thomas, photographer and winner of the first ever Aperture West Book Prize for his recently released monograph Pitch Blackness, sat down for an intimate discussion about their family and artistic histories. Together, they outlined the relationship they share as mother and son and as fellow artists.

One of the questions that arose after the presentation was how Deborah, as a central figure in African American studies feels about Michelle Obama as a new role model in the American political and social landscape.

Listen to a clip of her response here.

In case you missed the event you can watch the video recording of the entire discussion here.

Join us for an intimate conversation between mother and son about their work, influences, and collaborations. Hank Willis Thomas is one of today’s most compelling emerging artists. His first monograph, Pitch Blackness (Aperture), raises complex questions about identity, race, violence, and commodification in contemporary life. Deborah Willis is a photographer, educator, author, and curator. She is currently chair and professor of photography and imaging at Tisch School of the Arts at New York University and the coauthor or the recently released title Obama: The Historic Campaign In Photographs (Harper Collins). Both will be available to sign their respective books following the conversation.

Tuesday, November 11, 6:30 p.m.

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

FREE

Can’t make it to Aperture Gallery? Watch tonight on Aperture Live!

Obama Rally, Washington Square Park, NYC, September 2007. Photo by Terrence Jennings

Obama: The Historic Campaign in Photographs
Curated by Deborah Willis & Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe

Exhibition on view: September 19, 2008 – November 8, 2008
Leica Gallery
670 Broadway
New York, New York

This exhibition documents and describes a transformation; it expresses the range of emotions expressed by the subjects in the photographs since February 10, 2007, the day on which Barack Obama announced that he would run for President. This exhibit highlights, through some 100 photographs, the road to Barack Obama’s historic nomination as the first black American to lead the Presidential ticket of a major party.

Also, join Deborah Willis and her son, Hank Willis Thomas, in conversation at Aperture Gallery on November 11, 6:30 p.m. Thomas’ first monograph, Pitch Blackness, was just published by Aperture.

© Stephen Shames

The Department of Photography & Imaging in the Kanbar Institute of Film and Television at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts has announced the dates for an exhibition presenting approximately 75 works including letters, photographs, paintings, prints, video, and installation art by 50 artists who have transformed our understanding of identity, resistance, war and peace.

The exhibition will be on view in the Gulf + Western Gallery and in the 8th floor gallery of the Tisch School of the Arts Department of Photography & Imaging, located at 721 Broadway (at Waverly Place). Gallery hours are 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. weekdays and noon to 5 p.m. Saturdays. This exhibition is open to the public and admission is free. Photo ID is required when entering the building. For further information on the exhibition or any of its accompanying events, visit photo.tisch.nyu.edu or call 212/998-1930.

Artists, filmmakers, and writers in the exhibition include: Emma Amos, Tomie Arai, William Cordova, Bruce Davidson, Thulani Davis, Leslie Hewitt, Jessica Ingram, Builder Levy, Lorie Novak, Norman Parish, Jolene Rickard, Stephen Shames, Margo Machida, Elaine Mayes, Iris Morales, Paul Owen, Robert Sengstacke,  Bob Stam, Jamel Shabazz, Hong-An Truong, Carla Williams, Hank Willis Thomas, Carrie Mae Weems, Fran Wilson, and more.

This exhibition is currently on view through November 22. More Information.

As promised, here is a sneak preview of the very special limited-edition photograph by Hank Willis Thomas that we will be unveiling as a new work in our Limited-Edition Photographs Program. Hank is the first recipient of the Aperture West Book Prize, and as a result his first monograph Pitch Blackness will be published by Aperture in October 2008. As René de Guzman writes of Willis Thomas in her essay contribution to Pitch Blackness, the artist is “most closely aligned with the pioneering African-American artists of the 1970′s and 1980′s, such as Carrie Mae Weems and Deborah Willis ( the artist’s mother, who is also an acclaimed photographer, scholar and curator), and his immediate predecessors Lorna Simpson, Glenn Ligon and Kara Walker.” The artist’s work deals with issues of grief, black-on-black violence in America, the ways in which corporate culture is complicit in the crises of black male identity and how advertising and the media represent African Americans. With his characteristic pointedness and dark humor informed by his personal experiences, Hank Willis Thomas is one of the most compelling emerging artists working today. Aperture is looking forward to bringing his work to a wider audience. Keep checking the website for print availability or email prints@aperture.org with inquiries.