Aperture Releases the First Title in the Vision & Justice Book Series, Race Stories: Essays on the Power of Images by Maurice Berger

New York, September 26, 2024—Aperture announces Race Stories: Essays on the Power of Images, the inaugural title in the Vision & Justice Book Series, available in November. The anthology brings together for the first time a collection of award-winning essays by the late cultural historian Maurice Berger (1956–2020; born in New York) that explore the powerful role photography plays in shaping ideas and attitudes about race, justice, and belonging in the United States. Race Stories features seventy-one critical essays with 189 accompanying images that represent seven years of Berger’s life-long endeavor to distill complex ideas about racial equity. Created and coedited by Drs. Sarah Elizabeth Lewis, founder of Vision & Justice, Leigh Raiford, and Deborah Willis, the Vision & Justice series, published by Aperture, is a groundbreaking endeavor designed to address past omissions and contribute to the ongoing work of building a richer, more racially inclusive story of lens-based practices.

Race Stories: Essays on the Power of Images reveals how, since the introduction of photography, visual culture has been instrumental in both perpetuating and combating racial stereotypes. Written between 2012 and 2019 and first presented as a monthly feature on the New York Times Lens blog, Berger’s incisive essays help readers see a bigger picture about race through storytelling and challenge them to reconsider cultural and personal assumptions and prejudices. By directing attention to the most revealing aspects of images, Berger’s writing makes complex issues comprehensible, vivid, and engaging. This anthology meditates on a range of moments and movements in American history when race, visual culture, and media awareness intersected, illuminating images by photographers both unknown and iconic such as LaToya Ruby Frazier, Gordon Parks, Jamel Shabazz, and Obama White House photographer Pete Souza. The writings also examine the full spectrum of photographic imaging, from amateur to professional pictures, from snapshots to fine art, from glamour to mugshots, and from celebrity portraiture to celebrated photojournalism.

Edited by curator and scholar Marvin Heiferman, Berger’s husband, the book includes a foreword by Dr. Henry Louis “Skip” Gates, Jr., a preface by the Vision & Justice coeditors, and an afterword by Dawoud Bey, Nona Faustine, and Peter W. Kunhardt, Jr.

Race Stories: Essays on the Power of Images is co-published by Aperture and the New York Times and is available at aperture.org/books.
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Public Programs
A range of public programs celebrating the launch of Race Stories and honoring the legacy of Maurice Berger will be offered, led by “Democracy, Race, and the Power of Images,” part of Forums on Contemporary Photography at the Museum of Modern Art, New York (MoMA). For the panel, Sarah Lewis and Vision & Justice coeditors Leigh Raiford and Deborah Willis will be joined by Dawoud Bey, Vinson Cunningham, Aruna D’Souza, Ava DuVernay, Awol Erizku, Marvin Heiferman, Sherrilyn Ifill, Siddhartha Mitter, and RaMell Ross, at MoMA, on Wednesday, October 2, at 5:30 p.m.

“Race and Visual Literacy,” a conversation about Race Stories: Essays on the Power of Images, with Marvin Heiferman, Noelle Flores Théard, and Zun Lee, will take place on Tuesday, November 19, at 6:30 p.m., at the School of Visual Arts, New York; and a program with Aruna D’Souza, Maleke Glee, Marvin Heiferman, Sarah Lewis, Timothy Nohe, Lowery Stokes Sims, and Rebecca Uchill will be held on December 5, at 3:30 p.m., at the Center for Art, Design, and Visual Culture, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, where Berger served as chief curator. Further details and additional programs will be listed at aperture.org/events.
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About Maurice Berger
Maurice Berger (1956–2020; born in New York) was a cultural historian, curator, and writer, who spent much of his career studying and teaching racial literacy through innovative exhibitions, publications, and visual literacy projects. His books include White Lies: Race and the Myths of Whiteness (2000) and For All the World to See: Visual Culture and the Struggle for Civil Rights (2010), which was also was one of the premier projects mounted by the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. He received honors and grants from the Association of Art Museum Curators and Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and was nominated for an Emmy Award.

Support for the Vision & Justice Book Series has been generously provided by the Carnegie Foundation, the Ford Foundation, Dawoud Bey, and Agnes Gund.

Aperture’s programs and operations are made possible by the generosity of our board of trustees, our members, and other individuals, and with major support from 7G Foundation, Charina Endowment Fund, Documentary Arts, Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, Ishibashi Foundation, Joy of Giving Something, Anne Levy Charitable Trust, Henry Luce Foundation, Mailman Foundation, MurthyNAYAK Foundation, Grace Jones Richardson Trust, San Francisco Foundation, Thomas R. Schiff Foundation, Jane Smith Turner Foundation, Stuart B. Cooper and R. L. Besson, Kate Cordsen and Denis O’Leary, Thomas and Susan Dunn, Michael Sonnenfeldt, Jon Stryker and Slobodan Randjelovic, National Endowment for the Arts, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and New York State Council on the Arts, with support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.

About Aperture
Aperture is a nonprofit publisher that leads conversations around photography worldwide. From our base in New York, Aperture connects global audiences and supports artists through our 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. For more information on Aperture, visit: aperture.org.

About Vision & Justice
Vision & Justice is a catalytic civic and cultural initiative that generates original research, curricula, and programs that reveal the foundational role visual culture plays in generating equity and justice in America. Founded and spearheaded by art and cultural historian Sarah Elizabeth Lewis, the initiative builds awareness of the impact of images in the public realm and their capacity to shape the interwoven fabric of individual identity, community collaboration, and democratic participation. Through institutional collaborations, leadership convenings, and public programs, Vision & Justice serves as a partner and resource for civic and cultural leaders in fostering representational literacy and justice. For more information on the initiative, visit visionandjustice.org.
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Press Contact
Lauren Van Natten, +1 212.946.7151, publicity@aperture.org