Member Preview of the 2017 Aperture Summer Open: On Freedom

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Aperture Members are cordially invited to a special exhibition preview and reception on Thursday, July 13 for the 2017 Aperture Summer Open: On Freedom.

5:30-7:00 p.m. – Member preview and reception
6:00 p.m. – Introductions by Chris Boot, Aperture’s executive director, and Wyatt Gallery, For Freedoms
7:00-8:30 p.m. – Open to the public

Curated by For Freedoms, this year’s exhibition offers a photographic response to Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms: freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom from want, and freedom from fear. The photographers and image-makers selected for inclusion each address these issues in their work in varying ways. By bringing them together, we aim to open up a dialogue about the nature and necessity of political action, the language and means by which we critique and produce avenues for sustainable change, and the relationship of photography to these issues.

In the hands of some of the photographers presented in this exhibition, the camera serves as a mirror, reflecting on the stark limitations that make social inequality visible. In others, the camera serves as a tool of liberation—for the body and the mind, and from personal and ecological danger, social constructs, and political limitations. The selection demonstrates how the democratic nature of photography can serve as a vehicle for diverse perspectives to visualize social problems, spark dialogue, and transform assumptions. For many, freedom may be an illusion, but the photographers here are committed to mapping new aspects of this critical terrain—identifying a trail, pointing out dangers along the way—and ever aiming toward the light.

Click here for a list of participating photographers.

About the Aperture Summer Open
The Aperture Summer Open is an annual open-submission exhibition at Aperture Foundation’s gallery that features a wide variety of work drawn from members of our photographic community. Selected annually by a prominent curator or editor, the exhibition seeks to reveal and report on critical themes and trends driving international contemporary photographic practice. The exhibition opens the doors of the foundation to all photographers, both well- and lesser-known, as it fosters and promotes new ideas and talent.

Aperture’s exhibitions are funded, in part, with support from the Grace Jones Richardson Trust, and with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature, and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

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