Aperture, Issue 263 – Secrets

Aperture magazine was founded in 1952 by a small circle of photographers–Ansel Adams, Minor White, Barbara Morgan and Dorothea Lange–and the photography historians Beaumont and Nancy Newhall. These individuals wished to foster the development and appreciation of the photographic medium, as well as communicate with “serious photographers and creative people everywhere, whether professional, amateur, or student.” Today the magazine maintains the founders’ spirit, presenting a diversity of historical work, photojournalism and portfolios by emerging photographers, thematic articles, as well as interviews with important figures at work today.

Aperture has published the work of many iconic and emerging artists including Diane Arbus, Walead Beshty, Shannon Ebner, JH Engström, William Eggleston, Nan Goldin, Paul Graham, Josef Koudelka, Sally Mann, Richard Misrach, Stephen Shore, Sara VanDerBeek and James Welling. The magazine has also showcased leading writers and curators in the field including Vince Aletti, John Berger, Geoffrey Batchen, David Campany, Charlotte Cotton, Geoff Dyer, Mary Panzer, Luc Sante, Abigail Solomon-Godeau, David Levi Strauss, among many others.

In this issue:

Uncovering photography’s secret life: a world of conspiracy, private eyes, voyeurs, hidden histories, and nested realities.

This issue explores the hidden forces that shape our lives and what we see—from state control and voyeurism to coded gestures and interior worlds. In an age of oversharing and eroded privacy, a well-guarded secret takes on a new currency, a means of opting out of a system that wants to know everything about you. The photographers featured in this issue show how secrets can forge intimacy, create solidarity, become a form of play, propel a riveting whodunit, or resist language altogether.