Aperture (magazine)
Aperture is a renowned quarterly photography magazine, and also a highly respected major publisher of nearly 500 books of fine art photography. Aperture is based in New York, USA.
Inspired by the unrivalled production-quality of Alfred Stieglitz's then defunct Camerawork, Aperture magazine was founded, on a small budget, by:- Minor White, Ansel Adams, Dorothea Lange, Barbara Morgan, Nancy Newhall & Beaumont Newhall, Melton Ferris and Dody Warren. Photographer Minor White edited the magazine, from its first issue in 1952 until 1975. White died in 1976.
Both Aperture magazine and its book publishing arm are now run by the not-for-profit arts institution the Aperture Foundation. In 2003 the Foundation instituted the first Aperture/Michael E. Hoffman Award, in memory of Michael E. Hoffman (d. 2001), who was Aperture's Publisher for thirty-seven years. Hoffman, a close friend of then editor Minor White, rescued and revived the magazine in 1964, after it was forced to fold owing $25,000 in debts. The magazine then became the current quarterly large-format book-like journal.
Aperture's book publication program began a year later in 1965, with Edward Weston: The Flame of Recognition. Aperture was later crucial in reviving the reputation of Diane Arbus. MoMA curator John Szarkowski was staging a major Arbus retrospective in 1972, but the prospect of an accompanying Diane Arbus catalogue/book been turned down by all major publishing houses in the USA and even in Europe. Aperture's Michael E. Hoffman took on the challenge, and Aperture delivered one of the most influential photography books ever published, in time for the show. Another Aperture book of consequence was the 1984 The Golden Age of British Photography, 1839-1900, which for the first time showed the best of British Victorian era photography in a restored and finely-printed condition.
Aperture now also sponsors limited edition portfolios; lectures and conferences; and occasional touring gallery exhibitions. It will open its own 3,000 sq.ft New York gallery for fine-art photography, in Autumn/Fall 2005.
Aperture is also notable for its strong anti-censorship stance, and its support for photographers who create pictures that risk legal prosecution.