Detail from Untitled, 2008 by Richard Misrach

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!

Monday, November 1, 2010

The Lighthouse at Chelsea Piers

Proceeds from Aperture’s Benefit, Auction, and Party are essential for maintaining the quality of Aperture’s publications, exhibitions, and education programs. Join us!

Now on view at A.M. Richard Fine Art is the group exhibition “Polaroid: Instant Joy”. The show attempts to provide an overview of those who have used instant film to push limits and embrace unpredictability. One of the artists, Chuck Close, was featured in Aperture magazine issue 160 and Aperture published his book of daguerreotypes, “A Couple Ways of Doing Something” in 2006. Ellen Carey, who was recently published in “The Edge of Vision” (Aperture, 2009) is also included in the exhibition.

Polaroid: Instant Joy
June 19–July 31, 2010

A.M. Richard Fine Art:
328 Berry Street, 3rd Floor
Brooklyn, NY

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

Come celebrate with Aperture friends and artists! Enjoy an exclusive limited-edition print by Dan Winters, live jazz by The Cangelosi Cards (listen here), a Polaroid photo booth, participate in a Dewar’s tasting, sip Chandon bubbly, win spectacular raffles and more! Hosted by SNAP! Aperture’s Young Patrons Program. Your participation will support the Aperture Fund for Emerging Artists.

Co-chaired by Jen Bekman, Christina Cahill, and Alan Stoga

Friday, March 19, 2010
9:00 pm–Midnight

Aperture Gallery
547 West 27th Street, 4th Floor (map it)

Party tickets, including one print and
Aperture magazine subscription:

> $250 (admission for two)

> $200 (admission for one)

Regular party tickets:

> $150 (admission for two)

> $100 (admission for one)

Buy a SNAP! membership now and get discounted admission tickets.

Existing Patrons and SNAP! members contact development@aperture.org for discounted admission tickets.

Contact: Michiko Simanjuntak Grasso, (212) 946-7149, mgrasso@aperture.org

Barbara Crane gave a talk last November coinciding with her exhibition, Barbara Crane: Private Views, currently on view at Aperture Gallery. Crane went through her entire 45-year illustrious career as a photographer who continues to experiment with processes and reinventing a new language for her different bodies of work. In this excerpt below, Crane speaks specifically about her series of close-up Polaroids from Private Views taken in Chicago in the 1980s; how she photographed in movement with her cumbersome Super Speed Graphic camera, in thick crowds and her particular attention to gesture and colors. She also explains how it took her more than 25 years to edit these images in a book.

To watch the full version of this talk, click on these links below:

Part 1, Part 2

Barbara Crane: Private Views is on view at Aperture Gallery until January 21st. This series is a celebration of the classic 1980s Polaroid snapshot with an experimental flair; Crane’s mixture of natural light and flash combined with her use of Polaroid film highlights the primary colors of ’80s fashion, which still feels hip and contemporary today. An exhibition of this work will also be on view at Galerie Françoise Paviot, in Paris from January 14th until February 20th. There will be an opening with the artist on Saturday, January 23rd from 4:00 to 8:00 pm.

View related limited-edition print and book

TWO EXHIBITIONS AND EVENTS
EXPLORE PRIVATE VERSUS PUBLIC LIFE IN CHICAGO—PAST AND PRESENT

Aperture Gallery is pleased to present two simultaneous exhibitions exploring the city of Chicago from different vantage points and periods in history. While Michael Wolf’s large-scale color photographs of downtown Chicago’s buildings and their inhabitants examine public versus private space in the context of 21st-century urban life, Barbara Crane’s intimate Polaroids from the 1980s hone in on private human gestures performed in public at Chicago’s summer festivals.

Michael Wolf: Artist’s Talk and Book Signing
Tuesday, November 10, 6:30 pm

Barbara Crane and Barbara Hitchcock
in Conversation + Book Signing
Wednesday, November 11, 6:30 pm

Opening Reception with pics Fuji’s new instant cameras! :
Thursday, November 12, 6:00—8:00 pm

Exhibitions on view:
November 7, 2009—January 21, 2010

Aperture Gallery
547 West 27th Street, 4th floor
between 10th & 11th Avenues
New York, New York
(212) 505-5555

View exhibitions details

View events details

Now on view through June is an exhibition titled Struck by Light: A Retrospective of Photograms by Ellen Carey. The artist uses one of the earliest processes in photography, which creates a shadow image from objects that are placed directly on photosensitive paper and then exposed to light. The resulting works are abstract in aesthetic and completely contemporary in their conceptual approach to color and light. Her more recent works utilize Polaroid materials in line with her photogram techniques. Carey’s work is featured in The Edge of Vision: The Rise of Abstraction: The Rise of Abstraction in Photography, a new title from Aperture with an accompanying exhibition. To find out more on the artist and her work, St. Joseph College Art Gallery hosts a free artist’s talk with Ellen Carey this week.

Struck by Light: A Retrospective of Photograms by Ellen Carey
Friday, April 3–Sunday, June 21, 2009

Gallery Talk with artist
Thursday, May 7  5:30 pm

FREE

Saint Joseph College Art Gallery
1678 Asylum Avenue
West Hartford, Connecticut
(860) 232-4571