Brendan Embser

Latest Stories

Miranda July, The Amateurist, 1997

Close Encounters with Miranda July

Through her playful and provocative collaborations with strangers, July consistently asks what we want from power, technology, and love.

How Gregory Halpern Found His Voice in Buffalo

The photographer speaks with his brother, the journalist Jake Halpern, about growing up in a city of surreal sights and memorable characters.
Tyler Mitchell, Threads of Memory, 2023

Tyler Mitchell Stages a Homecoming in Georgia

In his latest exhibition, the artist considers the poetics of space, presenting sculptures and photographs that move off the wall.

Samantha Box’s Pictures of Dreams and Diaspora

The photographer’s multilayered still lifes interrogate the trade routes between Africa, the Caribbean, and the US—and show how memory emerges through the senses.

At a Photography Festival in Houston, History Confronts the Present

The complex, finely calibrated messages of the FotoFest Biennial provoke difficult questions about what art can actually do for society beyond illustration.
Rotimi Fani-Kayode, Every Moment Counts (Ecstatic-Antibodies), 1989

How Autograph’s Photobooks Champion Black British Photography

Since the 1980s, the London-based organization has propelled a commitment to the visibility of Black artists by centering identity and human rights.

Progress Requires Pictures: An Exit Interview with Chris Boot

Aperture’s executive director, who steps down in May 2021, speaks about his career in photography and how images impact our lives beyond the appreciation of art.

Why Deborah Willis Thinks the Photobook Can Be Transformative

The renowned scholar speaks about her early career in photography, confronting racism in publishing, and why books about Black life are vital.
David Benjamin Sherry, Manorathadayakas, 2008

What “Greater New York” Got Right about Photography in the Age of Instagram

In 2010, photography was at a turning point. How did an ambitious survey at MoMA PS1 anticipate a generation of artists who define the field today?

Gus Aronson’s Tokens of New York in the Age of Isolation

In a new series made in Upper Manhattan and the Bronx, the photographer searches for signs that could be taken for wonders.

FUJIFILM

The Photographer Whose Mother Built Trump Tower

Res searches for bonds between people, from the family household to community protest.

What It Takes to Be a Photo Editor

For TIME magazine’s editor at large, photography is about speaking truth to the world.

Why Farah Al Qasimi Has Her Eye on You

The photographer and cocurator of the 2020 Aperture Summer Open speaks about glamorous bodegas, New York maximalism, and why art is essential—even during a crisis.

Introducing: Steven Molina Contreras

Between Long Island, El Salvador, and Peru, an American Family’s Emotional Reunion.

Introducing: Luther Konadu

For the latest installment of “Introducing,” Aperture speaks with Luther Konadu, whose constructed photographs riff on the work of Carrie Mae Weems and Paul Mpagi Sepuya.

The Pain and Pleasure of Queer Life in Egypt

Mahmoud Khaled considers the legacy of the “Cairo 52,” the men who were arrested in 2001 at a gay-friendly nightclub.

2019 Portfolio Prize Winner: Mark McKnight

Mark McKnight’s black-and-white images of bodies and landscapes challenge Eurocentric ideas about male beauty—and aim to make “straight” photography a little less straight.

From August Sander, Stirring Portraits of Nazis and Jews

An extraordinary photobook reveals the lives of persecuted Germans during World War II.
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Aperture 254

Aperture Releases “Counter Histories,” Produced with Magnum Foundation Spring Issue Presents Photographers Who Uncover Personal and Political Histories (New York—March 6, 2024) What creative possibilities are offered by the gaps, absences, and silences in historical records? This spring, Aperture magazine presents “Counter Histories,” an issue produced in collaboration with Magnum Foundation and informed by their…