Aperture (magazine)

Aperture (magazine)
source
Title	Aperture
Category	Photography
Frequency	Quarterly
Publisher	Aperture Foundation
Firstdate	1952
Country	United States
Based	New York City
Language	English

Aperture (magazine) is a quarterly photography journal founded in 1952 that has shaped modern photographic discourse through portfolios, critical essays, and exhibition-scale projects. The publication has connected photographers, critics, curators, and institutions across New York City, Paris, London, Tokyo, and other cultural centers, influencing museum programming, gallery markets, academic curricula, and festival programming. Aperture balances historical surveys, contemporary practice, and theoretical inquiry while collaborating with museums, foundations, and universities.

History

Aperture was established in 1952 by a group of practitioners and patrons including Ansel Adams, Dorothea Lange, Robert Frank, Minor White, and Melton Ferris, emerging amid discussions in New York City involving the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Photo League. Early issues featured photographers associated with the New Bauhaus and the Institute of Design in Chicago, and attracted attention from curators at the International Center of Photography, the George Eastman Museum, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum. During the 1960s and 1970s Aperture engaged debates related to the work of Henri Cartier-Bresson, Walker Evans, Paul Strand, Eugène Atget, and Edward Weston, while collaborating with critics and historians affiliated with Yale University, Columbia University, New York University, and the Royal College of Art. In the 1980s and 1990s the magazine responded to conceptual practices associated with Cindy Sherman, Richard Avedon, Garry Winogrand, Diane Arbus, and Andreas Gursky, and worked with curators from the Tate Modern, Centre Pompidou, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Into the 21st century Aperture has partnered with foundations such as the Ford Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the Getty Foundation, and engaged projects featuring artists like Nan Goldin, Alec Soth, Rineke Dijkstra, and Sebastião Salgado.

Editorial Mission and Content

Aperture’s stated mission links photographic practice to criticism, pedagogy, and public engagement, drawing on contributors connected to Harvard University, Princeton University, Stanford University, the University of California system, and the Courtauld Institute. Content types include portfolios by photographers such as Henri Cartier-Bresson, Ansel Adams, Walker Evans, and Robert Frank; critical essays by commentators associated with The New Yorker, The Guardian, The New York Times, and The Atlantic; interviews with figures like Susan Sontag, Roland Barthes, John Szarkowski, and Lucy Lippard; book reviews mentioning publishers such as Thames & Hudson, Phaidon, Steidl, and Aperture Foundation; and experimental projects involving institutions like the Museum of Contemporary Photography, the Jewish Museum, and the Brooklyn Museum. The magazine has published thematic issues addressing photojournalism linked to Magnum Photos, documentary practice linked to Life magazine, fashion photography linked to Vogue, and art photography linked to galleries including Gagosian, Pace Gallery, and Hauser & Wirth.

Notable Contributors and Issues

Notable contributors include photographers, critics, and curators such as Ansel Adams, Dorothea Lange, Robert Frank, Minor White, Walker Evans, Cindy Sherman, Sebastião Salgado, Nan Goldin, Alec Soth, Diane Arbus, Richard Avedon, Lee Friedlander, Garry Winogrand, Edward Steichen, Irving Penn, Helen Levitt, William Klein, Andreas Gursky, Rineke Dijkstra, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Sarah Moon, Alec Soth, and Hiroshi Hamaya. Critics and writers have included Susan Sontag, Roland Barthes, John Szarkowski, Rosalind Krauss, James Agee, Hilton Als, Teju Cole, and Lucy Lippard. Landmark issues have focused on themes involving the Photo League, the New York School, the Düsseldorf School, the Bechers, the New Topographics, documentary projects associated with Magnum Photos, war photography covering Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan, and cross-disciplinary collaborations with composers, poets, and filmmakers from Sundance Film Festival, Cannes Film Festival, and the Venice Biennale.

Awards and Recognition

Aperture and its contributors have received recognition and awards connected to major cultural institutions and prizes: fellows and laureates associated with the MacArthur Foundation, Guggenheim Fellowship recipients, National Endowment for the Arts awardees, and recipients of the Hasselblad Award, the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize, the ICP Infinity Awards, and the Royal Photographic Society honors. The magazine’s special issues have been acquired by libraries and archives including the Library of Congress, the Getty Research Institute, the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Yale, the New York Public Library, and the Bibliothèque nationale de France. Curators from the Museum of Modern Art, Tate Modern, and the Center for Creative Photography have cited Aperture portfolios in major exhibitions and retrospectives.

Business Model and Distribution

Published by the Aperture Foundation, the magazine operates as a nonprofit arts organization with revenue streams from subscriptions, single-issue sales, book publishing, memberships, grants from institutions such as the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the Ford Foundation, philanthropic donations, and partnerships with galleries and museums. Distribution channels have included independent bookstores like Strand Bookstore, chain retailers such as Barnes & Noble, specialty museum shops at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art, academic bookstores at Columbia University and University of Chicago, online platforms including major e-retailers, and direct mail subscription services. International distribution networks reach markets in London, Paris, Tokyo, Berlin, and Sydney, and collaborations extend to festivals and biennials including Photo London, Paris Photo, Arles, and the Venice Biennale.

Influence and Legacy

Aperture’s legacy is evident across museum curricula, gallery programming, photographic pedagogy, and publishing practices, influencing institutions such as the Museum of Modern Art, the International Center of Photography, the Getty Research Institute, the Tate, and the Victoria and Albert Museum. The magazine has helped canonize bodies of work by figures like Ansel Adams, Walker Evans, Robert Frank, Diane Arbus, and Cindy Sherman, and has shaped debates involving Susan Sontag, Roland Barthes, John Szarkowski, and Rosalind Krauss. Its publishing arm has produced monographs and exhibition catalogs that have entered the holdings of the Bibliothèque nationale de France, the Library of Congress, and university libraries at Harvard, Yale, and Oxford, ensuring ongoing influence on scholars, curators, collectors, and educators linked to major institutions and art markets.

Category:Photography magazines