Three years after the release of The New York Times Magazine Photographs, the Aperture Foundation is holding an exhibition that looks back on thirty years of photographs published in the American weekly. Unlike the sober cover of the book, the walls of the Aperture gallery are filled with a variety of photographs from a variety of photographers, with portraits, fashion, architectural and documentary work by Lynsey Addario, Paolo Pellegrin, Nan Goldin, Sebastiao Salgado, Gregory Crewdson and Ryan McGinley, among others. For 25 years, the magazine’s photo director, Kathy Ryan, was in charge of the selection: “I’ve always had a penchant for the work Susan Meiselas did in Nicaragua, but also for fashion photography, a discipline I appreciate all the more after having commissioned photographers like Jeff Koons, Lee Friedlander and Roger Ballen—none of whom belong to the fashion world—to cover it.” The publishing project featured personal favorites while offering some important perspective on past publications and how the weekly magazine has evolved.
By combining genres, the exhibition, like the book, mixes news, emotion and beauty. This eclecticism provides a broad overview of how the medium has changed in the pages of a major magazine, revealing a few behind-the-scenes secrets along the way. The pictures are accompanied by funny, philosophical and technical anecdotes written by the photographer’s, artistic directors, publishers and even some of the subjects themselves. This provides context for the production and publication of the images, and when it comes to war photography, the short texts convey the intensity felt by the photojournalist every day. “Every process begins with the same question: How can we reinvent ourselves this week?” asks Ryan. “The news of the world tends to repeat itself: every years brings earthquakes, war, famine and elections. How can you capture the reader’s attention once the subject, whether it’s a tragedy or any other major event, becomes so familiar?” Responding to these questions in a remarkable way, The New York Times Magazine’s Photographs stands out as a collection of the most important photographs of our times.
EXHIBITION
The New York Times Magazine Photographs
Until November 1st 2014
Aperture Foundation
547 W 27th St #4, New York,
NY 10001, USA
T: (212) 505-5555
BOOK
500 photographies
ISBN 978-1-59711-146-1
$75.00; £50.00
http://www.aperture.org
http://www.nytimes.com/pages/magazine/index.html
