To mark Aperture ’s return to a US-based printer, we present an issue that reflects on the image of American manufacturing, from the automobile as a symbol of the rise and fall of domestic industry, to how the worker, as subject, has fascinated photographers, from Lewis Hine to Lee Friedlander. A series of portfolios by contemporary photographers portray daily life in regional cities and communities, such as Pittsburgh and Buffalo. As debates continue about the country’s economic future and the outsourcing of jobs, this issue offers an urgent reflection on life, work, and pursuit of happiness, in the USA today. Aperture magazine is an essential guide to the art and phenomenon of photography, that combines the smartest writing with beautifully reproduced portfolios. Published quarterly, each issue focuses on a major theme in contemporary photography, serving as a book about its subject, for everyone interested in understanding where photography is heading. With fresh perspectives on the medium by leading writers and thinkers, and beautifully designed and produced, Aperture magazine makes new ideas in photography accessible to the photographer, student, and the culturally- curious alike.

"Family" delves into the ways photographers have chronicled their relationships with those closest to them, be it immediate family or their community of friends. Aperture magazine is an essential guide to the art and phenomenon of photography, that combines the smartest writing with beautifully reproduced portfolios. Published quarterly, each issue focuses on a major theme in contemporary photography, serving as a book about its subject, for everyone interested in understanding where photography is heading. With fresh perspectives on the medium by leading writers and thinkers, and beautifully designed and produced, Aperture magazine makes new ideas in photography accessible to the photographer, student, and the culturally curious alike.

Virginia Woolf 's prescient 1928 novel Orlando tells the story of a young nobleman who, during the era of Elizabeth I, mysteriously shifts gender, and lives on for three centuries without aging. Today, Orlando remains startlingly fresh for its playful imagining of gender fluidity. In 1992, filmmaker Sally Potter released an adaptation of the book with Tilda Swinton carrying the film as Orlando. Woolf 's tale has continued to hold sway over Swinton, who describes the book's ability "to change like a magic mirror. Where I once assumed it was a book about eternal youth, I now see it as a book about growing up, about learning to live." This special issue of Aperture magazine, guest edited by Swinton, will draw upon the themes of the novel-gender, indeterminate space, and the passage of time-and offer readers a collection of images and writings that celebrate openness and curiosity, in contrast to a contemporary political moment of insurgent parochialism and divisiveness. "Woolf wrote Orlando," Swinton notes, "in an attitude of celebration of the oscillating nature of existence. She believed the creative mind to be androgynous. I have come to see Orlando far less as being about gender than about the flexibility of the fully awake and sensate spirit: as Orlando him/herself so memorably remarks at the critical moment of transformation: 'Same person, different sex: no difference at all.' The issue of Aperture, then, will be a salute to indetermination. Peopled by voices and visions of artists and writers who are kaleidoscopically wired."

Why did Henri Cartier-Bresson nearly have a posthumous exhibition while still alive? What led Stephen Shore to work with color? Why was Sophie Calle accused of stealing Vermeer's The Concert ? And what is Susan Meiselas's take on Instagram and the future of online storytelling? Aperture Conversations presents a selection of interviews pulled from Aperture's publishing history, highlighting critical dialogue between photographers, esteemed critics, curators, editors, and artists from 1985 to the present day. Emerging talent along with well-established photographers discuss their work openly and examine the future of the medium. Through the history of Aperture's booklist, online platform, and Aperture magazine, Aperture Conversations celebrates the artist's voice, collaborations, and the photography community at large.

A detailed look at the dynamic spaces that have shaped conversations about photography in Africa for the last twenty-five years-the biennials, experimental art spaces, and educational workshops in which artists and audiences interact with photography. Platform: Africa presents a new generation of powerful artists, and is produced in collaboration with guest editors Bisi Silva, Founder and Artistic Director of the Centre for Contemporary Art in Lagos, Nigeria; John Fleetwood, director of the South Africa-based platform Photo and former head of the Market Photo Workshop in Johannesburg; and Aicha Diallo, Associate Editor of Contemporary And.

Elements of Style investigates the role of style, dress, and beauty in the formation of individual identity. From the stunning studio work of Kwame Brathwaite, the Harlem-based photographer who advanced the potent political slogan "Black Is Beautiful," to Collier Schorr's representations of the queer community in fashion contexts, to Pieter Hugo's portraits of young students at a Beijing art school, this issue reveals, across time and geographies, how fashion and style help us to see who we are and who we might become. Aperture magazine is an essential guide to the art and phenomenon of photography, that combines the smartest writing with beautifully reproduced portfolios. Published quarterly, each issue focuses on a major theme in contemporary photography, serving as a book about its subject, for everyone interested in understanding where photography is heading. With fresh perspectives on the medium by leading writers and thinkers, and beautifully designed and produced, Aperture magazine makes new ideas in photography accessible to the photographer, student, and the culturally curious alike.

If the year 2020 has resembled a disquieting sci-fi plot or a sinister speculative work, this year has also shown us that other ways of living are possible—if the collective will exists. But is it naive to speak of utopia today? In this issue, artists, photographers, and writers envision a world without prisons, document visionary architecture, honor queer space and creativity, and dream of liberty through spiritual self-expression. They show us that utopia is not a far-fetched scheme, or a “no place” (the literal meaning of the word utopia), but rather a way of reconsidering the everyday. Salamishah Tillet considers Tyler Mitchell’s portraits of Black people resting in open green space, while Sara Knelman shows the liberatory possibilities of feminist collage work of Lorna Simpson, Mickalene Thomas, Sara Cwynar, and Alanna Fields. From Afro-Futurist aesthetics to the eco-idealism of Biosphere 2, “Utopia” issue explores the role of photographs in shaping our future.

Aperture issue 229 will explore photography as it relates to transgender lives, histories, and communities. Guest edited by Zackary Drucker, the artist, activist, and producer of the television series Transparent , the issue will feature archival work and new photography by leading contemporary photographers.

In a time of hyperactive communication, unending consumerism, and political confusion, Wolfgang Tillmans guest-edits an issue of Aperture on the subject of spirituality and its connection to solidarity. "People are touched and moved by experiences of genuine solidarity," Tillmans notes. "Solidarity describes a degree of selflessness, or experiences that remind people of values higher than the pure mate-rialistic culture we're in." This issue, featuring contributions by leading artists, scientists, novelists,and philosophers, will look at different ways of considering humanity's longing for spiritual connection-from the shared sense of purpose behind global mass protests, to the collective spirit of the dance floor, to how image-makers have strived to visualize the intangible and the inexplicable. Key features include: a look at the role of spiritualism in the work of Minor White, Aperture's founding editor; esteemed physicist Peter Galison on the recent landmark image of a black hole; David Swindells's chronicle of underground rave culture in London; Siddhartha Mitter on images of protests in Hong Kong, Cairo, and Standing Rock; a collaborative project by Olivia Laing and Mary Manning; Sean O'Toole on Santu Mofokeng and South Africa's spiritual landscapes; plus portfolios by Susan Hiller, Mare Nero, Harit Srikhao, and more

How do homes serve as emblems of a moment, markers of the past, or articulations of future possibilities? The Spring 2020 issue of Aperture considers the meanings and forms of a home, and the relationships between architecture, design, and the domestic realm. From interviews with leading architects-such as David Adjaye, Denise Scott Brown, and Annabelle Selldorf-and a reconsideration of the irreverent interiors magazine Nest, to previously unpublished work by Robert Adams and new portfolios by artists including Alejandro Cartagena, Fumi Ishino, Mauro Restiffe, and the duo Randhir Singh and Seher Shah, House & Home considers the concepts of home across diverse geographies and time periods.

Published in 1986, Nan Goldin’s Ballad of Sexual Dependency, with its fresh, unflinching portrayal of the photographer’s circle of friends, dramatically changed the course of photography. Decades on, the series retains its searing power, influencing new generations of artists. Goldin herself remains a bold, singular force in our culture. Recently, she has taken on the Sackler family, shining a light on their role in creating America’s opioid crisis. Goldin’s trenchant activism is a reminder of the artist’s power to effect social change. The Ongoing Ballad issue of Aperture magazine is organized around the themes contained within the original ballad―intimacy, friendship, community, love, sex, trauma, music―while also honoring the urgent role of the artist as a force for cultural and social change.

The latest in a series of city-based issues, Mexico City profiles the dynamic photographic culture of Mexico’s capital, home to a thriving contemporary art scene, revered photography institutions, and world-class museums. From icons Lola Álvarez Bravo, Tina Modotti, and Graciela Iturbide to the most exciting figures at work today, the issue presents a range of photography as well as Mexican and Latin American writers—both veterans and newcomers—to an international audience.

The Native America issue, edited in collaboration with the artist Wendy Red Star, considers the wide-ranging work of photographers and lens-based artists who are posing challenging questions about land rights, narratives of identity and heritage, and histories of colonialism at a moment when debates around nationalism and borders in North America are deeply contested. With contributions by Indigenous photographers, scholars, writers, and curators-including Rebecca Belmore, Natalie Diaz, Martine Gutierrez, Duane Linklater, Terese Marie Mailhot, Wanda Nanibush, Julian Brave NoiseCat, and Tommy Pico-the issue will look into the historic, often fraught relationship between photography and Native representation, while also offering new perspectives by emerging artists who are engaged with defining what it means to be a citizen in North America today.

This issue of Aperture considers the natural world in the age of climate change, extreme weather, and dramatically politicized landscapes. Earth focuses on our relationship with the natural world, during a moment of continued debate about global warming and extreme weather, and as the vulnerability of our natural environment is underscored each day. As we enter the anthropocene, the term used by scientists to describe an age when human activity has the greatest impact on the earth, what is the role of the artist and culture in addressing this crisis? How do photographers honor and draw inspiration from the natural world? How do aesthetics shape our understanding of ecological concerns? This issue features contributions by writers and photographers including Charlotte Cotton, T.J. Demos, Carolyn Drake, William Finnegan, Bill McKibben, Gideon Mendel, Aveek Sen, David Benjamin Sherry, Lieko Shiga, Thomas Struth, Bruno V. Roels, and Vasantha Yogananthan.

As part of Aperture magazine's ongoing series of issues that profile the photographic culture of a particular city, the "Los Angeles" issue will explore how one of America's most photogenic cities is also an essential hub for some of today's most important photography and photo-based art. "Los Angeles" will feature key figures in the city's photography community and portfolios by figures who continue a conceptual tradition long associated with the city's art scene.