Aperture Magazine

2 weeks ago | aperture.org | Jesse Dorris

The problem with still lifes is that they’re often lifeless, as suggested by the Italians’ term for the genre: natura morta. From this problem, the photographer Lia Darjes, based in Hamburg and Berlin, is making a life’s work. Her latest pictures, recently collected in her photobook Plates I–XXXI (2024), appear to be formal arrangements but are, in fact, highly improvised tableaux in which snails, squirrels, ladybugs, and other fauna pay visits to the backyards of Berlin and parts unknown.

3 weeks ago | aperture.org | Rebecca Bengal

First published by Aperture in 1988, Sally Mann’s At Twelve, Portraits of Young Women is an intimate exploration of the complexities of the transition from girlhood to adulthood. Photographing in her native Rockbridge County, Virginia, Mann made portraits that capture the excitement and social possibilities of a tender age—while not shying away from alluding to experiences of abuse, poverty, or young pregnancy—and the girls in her photographs return the camera’s gaze with equanimity.

1 month ago | aperture.org | Brendan Embser

The best biennials produce an artistic momentthat everyone’s talking about. Often, it’s video that wins the day. Stephanie Comilang makes a convincing case with Search for Life II (2025), a centerpiece of the sixteenth Sharjah Biennial, which opened in February and features two hundred artists in exhibitions sprawling across the city and surrounding areas of Sharjah, in the United Arab Emirates.

1 month ago | aperture.org | Megan N. Liberty

Walking through the New York Art Book Fair this past spring, I pointed out a few favorites to a friend, including Janelle Rebel’s Bibliographic Performances & Surrogate Readings (The Everyday Press, 2024) and Bindi Vora’s Mountain of Salt (Perimeter Editions, 2023). My friend observed that I had a preference for smaller volumes. While Rebel’s book is 352 pages and printed on thin, lightweight paper reminiscent of photocopied research notes, Vora’s photobook tallies just under 450 pages.

1 month ago | aperture.org | Evan Moffitt

The light hits differently in Los Angeles. They say it’s an effect of smog, as sunbeams refract through toxic gases and radiate lurid colors. Whatever the case, that light has brought countless artists to the Golden State. It cuts across many of David Gilbert’s photographs, captured as it glances through the window blinds of his LA home and studio.