Aperture Magazine Releases Fall 2024 Issue Guest Edited by Deana Lawson

(New York—September 5, 2024) This fall, Aperture publishes “Arrhythmic Mythic Ra,” an issue that refracts themes of family, social history, and the astrophysical through the eyes of guest editor Deana Lawson, one of the most compelling photographers working today.

“The photographs that I’m most drawn to in my conscious looking life push against our preconceived notions of social and aesthetic norms,” Lawson says. “A photograph, by its nature, can deliver more about the subject than even the photographer or the subject intend. With this in mind, I have arranged a constellation of images that operate like texts and texts that operate like pictures—fragmented, arrhythmic, mythic.”

Aperture issue 256 features the work of more than thirty photographers—including Berenice Abbott, Bruce Davidson, LaToya Ruby Frazier, Balarama Heller, Arthur Jafa, Kikuji Kawada, Sally Mann, Louis Mendes, Boris Mikhailov, and cover artist Lieko Shiga—alongside new poetry by renowned authors Ben Okri, Tracy K. Smith, and Simone White; an essay by economic anthropologist Jason Hickel; and a short story by artist Jeff Whetstone.

“Lawson’s approach to reading photographs is wholly distinct and fresh. She has organized a surprising and enigmatic collection of images and texts for this special issue. It is very much an artist’s project in magazine form,” says Michael Famighetti, Aperture’s editor in chief.

“I believe we all need to observe things we don’t understand,” Lawson says, regarding her approach to the issue. “Arrhythmic Mythic Ra” invites readers to confront the unknowability of every photograph, offering a meditation on the mysterious relationship between the visible and invisible world.

The issue coincides with Poetic Record: Photography in a Transformed World, an exhibition and two-day symposium at Princeton University, where Lawson is the Dorothy Krauklis ’78 Professor of Visual Arts. The exhibition is curated by Lawson and Famighetti, and the symposium is organized by Lawson in collaboration with Princeton colleagues Jeff Whetstone and James Welling at the Hurley Gallery, Lewis Center for the Arts. The show, on view from October 1 to December 5, 2024, includes work by many photographers featured in “Arrhythmic Mythic Ra.” The symposium takes place from October 10 to 11.

Lawson is one of the most original artists of her generation and the recipient of numerous awards, including the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize in 2022 and the Hugo Boss Prize in 2020. In addition to many exhibitions at museums and galleries worldwide, her work is the subject of the acclaimed Deana Lawson: An Aperture Monograph, published in 2018.

 

Inside the issue …
Columns and Features

Guest Editor’s Note: Arrhythmic Mythic Ra
A photographic sequence selected by Deana Lawson

Field Guide to Wildflowers
“What did it feel like
to know your body was a dangerous secret?”
Jeff Whetstone

let fani willis fuck
“i am not sure which sin
i am invoking / whether it is envy actually / or uncut desire”
A Poem by Simone White

Impossible Truths
“Sometimes a photograph shows us more than / An unseen cage”
A Poem by Ben Okri

Imagination
What would a postcapitalist society look like today?
Jason Hickel

’Tis of Thee
“The appetite for truth is cavernous”
A Poem by Tracy K. Smith

AGENDA
The FotoFocus Biennial, Photographing Britain, Sophie Calle, Louis Carlos Bernal

BACKSTORY
Ian Bourland on Robert Frank’s genre-bending musical collaborations

VIEWFINDER
Tiana Reid on Legacy Russell’s history of Black memes

REDUX
Yxta Maya Murray on Rafael Goldchain’s portraits of grief and piety

DISPATCHES
Lola Mac Dougall on how Goa is keeping family memories alive

CURRICULUM
Farah Al Qasimi on Etel Adnan, Tarek Al-Ghoussein, and Murder, She Wrote

PREVIEW
Brian Dillon on Richard Misrach’s sublime visions of global trade

INTERVIEW
Rebecca Bengal speaks with Emmet Gowin about his life in pictures

ENDNOTE
Rachel Kushner on Neanderthal DNA, Helen Keller, and her foray into spy fiction

 

The PhotoBook Review
UNBOUND JOURNEYS
Dalia Al-Dujaili speaks with the designer Roï Saade

ILLUMINATIONS
Vanessa Peterson on a new anthology of Black British female photographers

Reviews of photobooks by Rahim Fortune, Mary Frey, Yorgos Lanthimos, and more

 

Support has been provided by members of Aperture’s Magazine Council: Jon Stryker and Slobodan Randjelovic, Susan and Thomas Dunn, Kate Cordsen and Denis O’Leary, and Michael W. Sonnenfeldt, MUUS Collection.

About Aperture
Aperture is a nonprofit publisher that leads conversations around photography worldwide. From its base in New York, Aperture con- nects global audiences and supports artists through its acclaimed quarterly magazine, books, exhibitions, digital platforms, public programs, limited-edition prints, and awards. Established in 1952 to advance “creative thinking, significantly expressed in words and photographs, Aperture champions photography’s vital role in nurturing curiosity and encouraging a more just, tolerant society.

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Press Contact
Lauren Van Natten, +1.212.946.7151, publicity@aperture.org