“The family photograph is a marker of myths,” Glen Helfand writes in Aperture’s Winter 2018 issue, “Family.” At a moment of conservative backlash to queer rights and of the separation of families at the U.S. border, the image of the family you have—or the family you choose in search of connections across race and sexuality—has never been more important. “Family” features essays by literary figures including Sheila Heti, Pico Iyer, and John Jeremiah Sullivan, as well as photography by Diana Markosian, whose family emigrated from Russia to California; Liz Johnson Artur, who has spent her career photographing individuals of the African diaspora; and a special portfolio by Stefan Ruiz of the House of Xtravaganza, one of New York’s legendary ballroom houses. Throughout “Family,” artists and photographers transform the group portrait through appropriation, performance, conceptual intervention, and long-term community engagement.

“Family” is on newsstands December 4.

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