Aperture (magazine)

Aperture is a quarterly photography magazine and a book publisher based in New York, New York. The magazine is published by Aperture Foundation, a non-profit organization devoted to fine art photography.

Magazine

Inspired by the production quality of Alfred Stieglitz's then defunct Camera Work, Aperture magazine was founded by Minor White, Ansel Adams, Dorothea Lange, Barbara Morgan, Nancy Newhall and Beaumont Newhall. White, himself a photographer, edited the magazine from its first issue in 1952 until 1975. He died in 1976.

The first iteration of the magazine closed in 1964. Hoffman, a close friend and former student of then editor White, later restored the magazine, becoming its publisher and adopting a quarterly format.

The magazine helped publish a catalog by photographer Diane Arbus, a year after her death. MoMA curator John Szarkowski was organizing an Arbus retrospective in 1972, but the catalog had been rejected by all the major publishing houses in the United States and Europe. Aperture agreed to publish Arbus' catalog and it was released in time for the show as Diane Arbus: An Aperture Monograph.

Book publisher

Aperture's book publication program began in 1965, with Edward Weston: The Flame of Recognition, which became one of Aperture's best-selling titles.

In 1984, Aperture also published The Golden Age of British Photography, 1839–1900, which featured restored, British Victorian Era photography.

Aperture Foundation

As of 2009, Both Aperture magazine and its book publishing arm are run by the nonprofit arts institution the Aperture Foundation. In 2003, the Foundation instituted the first Aperture/Michael E. Hoffman Award, in memory of Michael E. Hoffman (died 2001), who was Aperture's publisher for 37 years.

The Aperture Foundation sponsors limited edition portfolios, lectures, conferences and touring gallery exhibitions. In 2005, it opened a gallery for fine art photography in New York City.