Journey through journals: Aperture

Aperture is a photography journal of considerable prestige with international circulation that seeks to promote existing and emerging artists in the world of photography. Join us on a quick journey through this journal  and discover its popularity. 

Aperture was founded in New York in 1952 by a committee of notable American photographers of the twentieth century, including Ansel Adams, Dorothea Lang and Beaumont Newhall who we have selections of their work in our wider photography collection at 779 in Harrison Library. The editors stated in it’s opening issue “Aperture has been originated to communicate with serious photographers and creative people everywhere, whether professional, amateur or student”. It treated photography as a fine art and encouraged photographers of all kinds to consider the wider themes and concepts represented by and through photography. 

Over time, Aperture has become more involved in social issues and more collaborative with its contributors. Aperture was transformed into a non-profit publisher in the 1960s and by the 1990s it was inviting different photographers to act as guest editors for 2 of its 4 annual issues to help bring in different perspectives. They also expanded to consider video and other digital media as cameras transformed and photography as a medium was becoming more accessible. It now “champions photography’s vital role in nurturing curiosity and encouraging a more just, tolerant society”

At the library, you can access Aperture in both print (covering issues no.83/84 (1980)-no.238 (2020) and now no.262 (2026) onwards) and online (with coverage from 1997 via our EBSCO database Art Source).  

The latest issue is the Fall issue edited by guest editor Hiroshi Sugimoto. It includes an amazing selection of photographs and a variety of articles on the following expansive topics: 

• The evolving scientific understanding of light as an integral component of photography 
• Multiple articles highlighting Hiroshi Sugimoto’s career – from his amassed collection of historical and cultural artefacts to his decades long project documenting diaramas, to his own words on the relationship between photography and time
• A spotlight on Jason Fulford’s Crocodile – a fanny pack that acts as a roving gallery for photography and conceptual art exhibition
• A review of Newsha Tavakolian’s new photobook “And They Laughed at Me” on her early career as a photojournalist in 1990s Iran.

This journal has a lot to offer to students and academics alike and we encourage you come and investigate both old and new issues alike.