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Sally Mann’s Photographs of Girls on the Cusp of Adulthood

Looking back at Mann’s book “At Twelve,” we see how much change lies ahead for each of the young women she pictured.

Why Are So Many Contemporary Painters Remaking Famous Images?

A profusion of paintings derived from movie stills and online screenshots reveals a shared impulse to understand—and transform—images’ strange power over us.

Kunié Sugiura’s Genre-Blending Vision

Since the late 1960s, Sugiura has defied the expectations of the art world with hybrid, dreamlike forms that test the limits of photographic expression.

How Can Image-Makers Open Up AI’s Mysterious “Black Box”?

To mitigate the crushing sameness of AI imagery, two researchers are turning to photographs made during the Great Depression.
AI-generated illustrations created by Gregory Eddi Jones for Aperture

What Is Realism in the Age of AI?

Photographs have long been manipulated or altered, but the rise in generative models gives new meaning to the idea of a “real” image.

Steven Cuffie’s Tender Portraits of Black Life in Baltimore

For decades, Cuffie’s work has languished in boxes waiting to be discovered. Now, his photographs of Baltimore in the 1970s are finally getting their due.

Why Sohrab Hura Considered Himself an “Anti-photographer”

In his first-ever US museum survey, the Indian artist experiments with the possibilities of documentary images—and expands into painting and video.

What Is Street Photography Today?

An exhibition in New York strives to define the possibilities of street photography today—and to tell us something about the state of our world.

The Japanese Women Who Transformed Photography

From Tokiwa Toyoko’s images of women working in the 1950s to Ushioda Tokuko’s domestic portraits, women artists have played a pivotal role in shaping the medium’s history in Japan.

Robert Frank’s Genre-Bending Collaborations with Musicians

Patti Smith, Tom Waits, and the Rolling Stones liked Frank because he turned a sympathetic eye to the margins of American experience.
Virginia Hanusik, Raised House in Delacroix, St. Bernard Parish, 2022

In Louisiana, a Photographer Charts Storms and Weather as Markers of Time

Virginia Hanusik’s portrait of coastal Louisiana looks beyond narratives of ruin and resilience.

The Exhibitions That Transformed African Photography

In 2004, the exhibition “Africa Remix” opened in Europe just as interest in contemporary African art was spreading worldwide. Twenty years later, does the show—and others of the era—still hold up?

An Ardent Observer of Beirut

Tanya Traboulsi pairs atmospheric images with pictures from her family archive, reflecting on the past and present of Lebanon’s capital.

Dayanita Singh Finds Common Ground in the Work of Two Architects

In her long-term series on Geoffrey Bawa and Bijoy Jain, Singh offers a world in which the aspirations of modernism are realized.
Tadáskía, Corda dourada com minha irmã Hellen Morais, 2020

A Brazilian Artist Finds Beauty in Hidden Revelations

Celebrated for her drawings and installations, Tadáskía’s photographs promote a new visual vocabulary about memory, property, and the Black family.

How Images Make the Objects We Desire Seem Irresistible

In the twentieth century, photographers proved you could sell anything. Today, they work in a world where you have to sell everything.

Kosen Ohtsubo’s Flower Planet

Inspired by jazz, improvisation, and conceptualism, the ikebana artist has created playful works that merge disciplines.

The Musicians Who Energized a Revolution in Nepal

Prasiit Sthapit’s photographs show how musicians—as both instigators and healers—influenced an insurrection that shook the country.
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Aperture No. 258

Aperture presents “Photography & Painting,” featuring artists from around the world who draw inspiration from both mediums in their work, illuminating how the dialogue between camera and canvas continues to unfold today in fascinating, unexpected ways.

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