Aperture Magazine

[Brian Moore]

Looks like a good read!

 

[Gary R. Smith]

Looks like a good read!

So far it has been much more enjoyable than the first issue that I received. It has articles that I can relate to whereas the earlier issue seemed too full of itself. Who knows? Maybe it's me too full of myself?

 

[Paul Taylor]

I am a damned, dirty pirate with magazines. I download them off newsgroups. This includes all the generic "digital photographer" magazines which there seems to be a never ending stream of different titles - where I find the most interesting content to be the reader submissions. I usually thumb through Aperture as well - and have mixed "mehs" about it as well. Perhaps I am just not artsy-smarts enough to "get it." Occasionally I will stumble across a magazine like "Photo Insights" - and I do rather like that one, and other similar small publisher magazines.

I worked with magazines for years, and watching how many of them were killed off was disappointing. I think I have replaced the missing magazines with YouTube creators however, and I do like the myriad of different photographers I watch on that service.

 

[Gary R. Smith]

I usually thumb through Aperture as well

So far I've actually enjoyed this issue but it's only the second one I've received. Unlike the first one, this one seems to be about photographers and their photographic projects.

I may need to search out "Photo Insights".

 

[Gary R. Smith]

The Fall issue arrived the other day and after browsing the whole thing once, I read one article, browsed it again and it's now in the pile to take to the library. I can't say that subscribing to this has enriched my appreciation of photography or photographers. So far, each issue has included at least a couple of interesting photographs but the signal to noise ratio is not quite worth what it's cost.

My 2 cents (so you don't have to spend yours).

 

[Pete Askew]

I used to subscribe to Aperture and enjoyed it while I did. I found myself drowning in magazines though and pared my subscriptions back. I now only subscribe to LFI and Studies in Photography (a quarterly journal of the Scottish Society for the History of Photography) and keep all of the back-issues. I have still got my copies of Aperture though as well as a select few others, but the rest have mostly gone. I do have a few years of Black and White Photography and BJP stored at work looking for a good home (free, but limited to the UK due to the cost of shipping) if anyone is interested).

 

[Gary R. Smith]

The current Winter 2024 issue contains 10 articles dealing with the application of AI to photography and the copyright issues of the same.

 

[Gianluca Drago]

This sounds like an interesting issue. AI has been everywhere for years/decades now, in your phone, your camera or photo editing software, your online searches, your bank account, your shop... What is probably exploding now is generative AI and I see that it is already present not only in images on websites or in web magazines and newspapers, but also in strictly called photo galleries (e.g. in The Guardian). The important thing is that it is explicitly stated and this is not always the case.

 

[Gary R. Smith]

Unlike most of the previous issues, I found this one interesting.

 

[Tony Warren]

What an interesting post. I think magazines and many other things are moving on from the time when doing something, including photography, involved a lot of study and application on technical matters. These are now largely taken care of by the equipment used. The result of this is that artists, artisans or whatever you call a tool user these days can be more expressive.

The lengths Bill Brandt had to go to to produce his striking wide angle nudes included assembling his own camera. Now we can just go out buy an inexpensive lens for any camera. I am not belittling anything done today - that was the Luddite's problem. If progress isn't at least recognised for its benefits, it is just that sort of thing that can occur. It doesn't mean you have to abandon everything else. just let it get on with it. Something good usually transpires, even AI might.

As to magazines, I recently learned that the UK Amateur Photographer has recently changed publishers. It has disappeared from the local library publications section no doubt as a result. I don't read many photography magazines myself but one that you might like Gary is D-Photo, a New Zealand publication, which is printed on good quality stock to a high standard. And I think the content is more photographer biased than photography connoisseur.

 

[Gary R. Smith]

a New Zealand publication,

Thanks for the tip Tony!

I enjoy reading printed material (just like I did when I learned to read). I don't enjoy reading long pieces online. I'd also prefer to view images in print rather than on-line although the ability to up-size and pixel peep online is nice.

If you've slagged through all of my input to this thread you'll likely get that I've not been overly impressed with aperture.

I've looked at several UK photography magazines at the (bricks-and-mortar) bookstore and they're always more expensive due likely to shipping them across the pond. They're likely to get more expensive once Trump extracts his tariff.

[5 minutes later] - I wonder if they're still publishing? I don't see anything on their website re: subscriptions to their print magazine. And images suggest that there hasn't been anything since 2022-23?

 

[Tony Warren]

Thanks for the tip Tony!

I enjoy reading printed material (just like I did when I learned to read). I don't enjoy reading long pieces online. I'd also prefer to view images in print rather than on-line although the ability to up-size and pixel peep online is nice.

If you've slagged through all of my input to this thread you'll likely get that I've not been overly impressed with aperture.

I've looked at several UK photography magazines at the (bricks-and-mortar) bookstore and they're always more expensive due likely to shipping them across the pond. They're likely to get more expensive once Trump extracts his tariff.

[5 minutes later] - I wonder if they're still publishing? I don't see anything on their website re: subscriptions to their print magazine. And images suggest that there hasn't been anything since 2022-23?

Hi Gary, yes, after posting that I went to the library on my regular weekly visit only to find the magazine had disappeared! Checking the web, I have found a web site which suggests it has changed publisher, possibly recently, and have morphed into a quarterly rather than the earlier two monthly form. I found them at:- https://dphoto.co.nz/ so that may help.

I remember Aperture as quite a respected publication but from what your post has shown it seems to have changed somewhat and not for the better.

Hope you can have a look at D-Photo. It may not appeal but no stone unturned and all that.

 

[Gary R. Smith]

It does appear that individual print issues may be available but I can't figure out what may be their latest. D-Photo #106 appears to be the newest available but it is "The best of 2022" - a bit stale.

 

[Tony Warren]

Unless they are selling off back issue stock I can't imagine what is going on - all very strange. Maybe it wasn't a good idea after all.

 

[Gary R. Smith]

Spring 2025

Clocks in at 160 pages (about 12mm thick). Entitled: Photography & Painting


As I have suspected for quite some time, this magazine just isn't for me. I spent an hour last night browsing the contents which include images that I never care to see again surrounded by pretentious text articles that were (obviously) written for "art" connoisseurs.
And advertising.

I don't begrudge the ads - really. If we hope to continue seeing print magazines they'll need to have ads. That said, as I flip the first flippable page I encounter a 2-page spread for the FRÆNKEL Gallery. The left side lists 26 names (2 of which I recognize) while the right side shows a b&w photo of a dark-haired man in a jock strap (PETER HUJAR, Self-Portrait Standing, 1980). Not for me.

Inside the back cover is a Diane Arbus shot of a slightly larger than life-size baby head (A very young baby, N.Y.C. (Anderson Hays Cooper) 1968). This is apparently advertising an exhibit at 606 N.Western Avenue, Los Angeles running from April 24 through June 21, 2025 entitled: The 1972 Diane Arbus Retrospective Revisited.

I can't say that I'm a Diane Arbus fan as most of her work is somewhat disturbing on one level or another.

As you might imagine, many (all?) of the articles are about artists who start paintings from photographs. One article called: Here's Looking at You, Kid shows a matrix of paintings done in black and white, each slightly larger than a 35mm film frame (on the printed page, larger in real life I imagine) that were taken from 24 frames of the movie Casablanca when Ingrid Bergman utters the words: "God bless you" during the farewell scene at the airport. There are apparently 24 of these paintings, each ever so slightly different in the actual gallery display representing 1 second of film run time (the article only shows a 4 x 4 arrangement of 16). These paintings are done in a limited pallet of color since you can easily see the transition from one shade of gray to the next however I don't think they were dropped to 32 distinct "colors" using s/w and then projected allowing the artist to "trace" the frame - but maybe. In any case, I thought this would be interesting to actually see face-to-face on a gallery wall.

I'll likely not post any further reviews of this magazine as there seems to be little interest in my thoughts (on the magazine or in general, I can't tell).

 

[Tony Warren]

The printed word world has taken one of the biggest hits from the internet I think. And readership has shifted from practitioner to cognoscente especially in photography. I do relate to your implied regret about Aperture and magazines in general. I must have spent a small fortune on them over the years and learned a great deal in the process but I have largely given them up these days and spend the savings on film etc. Much more satisfying. I am happy to let progress,well, progress while I just get on with what I can still enjoy.

 

[Gary R. Smith]

The printed word world has taken one of the biggest hits

It's not so much the printed word as it is the printed photo. I had hoped that aperture would be more about photographs. Instead, it's trying to force feed me an agenda (at least that's my opinion based on the photographers they feature)

 

[Gary Ayala]

I, for one, appreciate your write ups. Thanks for the heads-up on Diane Arbus. While I am not a fan of Diane Arbus ... I do appreciate her eye. Her ability to see and capture the odd ... the bizarre ... in everyday settings. I also miss the mags and the newspapers. Life, Look, Time, Playboy ... and every community had at least one newspaper ... some daily, some weekly ... and all had photography. One of my favorite was the Claremont Courier. A community weekly which always featured/promoted photos with their stories and always printed photo-stories every week.

 

[Gary R. Smith]

Thanks for the heads-up on Diane Arbus.

Is this something that you would go see? While I've taken books of her material out of the library, I'd likely go see a local showing of her work.

 

[Gary Ayala]

Is this something that you would go see? While I've taken books of her material out of the library, I'd likely go see a local showing of her work.

Yes/definitely. 606 N. Western is a David Zwirner gallery. Zwirner is a pretty prominent/prestigious gallery. The gallery is in the Larchmont district of LA. which has some good eateries. About a 45 minute drive for moi.