A Recap of Aperture’s Summer Soirée

Friends of Aperture gathered at the Aperture Summer Soirée along with photographers Matthew Pillsbury, Richard Renaldi, and other artists.

Aperture News - August 4, 2015

Aperture Foundation creative director and publisher Lesley A. Martin introducing photographer Matthew Pillsbury to event guests. Photo by Max Mikulecky.

Aperture Foundation creative director Lesley A. Martin introduces photographer Matthew Pillsbury to Summer Soirée guests. Photo by Max Mikulecky.

On July 22, photographers and friends of Aperture, as well as Aperture’s executive director, Chris Boot, and creative director, Lesley A. Martin, gathered to celebrate summer and photography at the Aperture Summer Soirée. Aperture trustees Jessica Nagle and Roland Hartley-Urquhart hosted a party with cocktails and hors d’oeuvres on the terrace of their Manhattan home, where guests had the opportunity to speak with Matthew Pillsbury, whose monograph City Stages was published by Aperture in 2013. Other Aperture photographers in attendance included Hannah Whitaker (Photography Is Magic, forthcoming in September 2015), Richard Renaldi (Touching Strangers, 2014), and Jeff Chien-Hsing Liao (Jeff Chien-Hsing Liao: New York, 2014).

Pillsbury presented recent work (courtesy of Benrubi Gallery) that he made on a trip to Japan. He discussed his early photographs and his turn to color. “It challenged me to work in a completely different way,” he said. “I felt like I had this freedom given to me.”

Of one photograph on view, depicting a ramen museum, he noted, “I saw this one room and said, ‘It has to be in color.’” Known for his black-and-white studies of modern urban environments, Pillsbury discussed this new approach. “Suddenly, in Tokyo, there were so many things that needed to be in color. . . . It’s a whole new language.”

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Matthew Pillsbury speaks about the process and making of Cup Noodles Museum, Yokohama, Tokyo, 2014 courtesy of Benrubi Gallery from his recent trip to Japan. Photo by Max Mikulecky.

Matthew Pillsbury speaks about the process of making Cup Noodles Museum, Yokohama, Tokyo, 2014 (courtesy of Benrubi Gallery), on a trip to Japan.

Jessica Levy with Joshua Greenberg of U.S. Trust, Bank of America, Andrew Craven, Aperture Foundation executive director Chris Boot, Aperture Foundation trustee Jessica Nagle, and Rodger Hicks