New York : Aperture 242

Marking the one-year anniversary of New York’s shutdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Aperture magazine’s “New York” issue honors the city through photographs and essays by visionary artists and writers, from Roe Ethridge and Rosalind Fox Solomon to Hilton Als and Joseph O’Neill. In “New York,” acclaimed photojournalist Philip Montgomery speaks with the New York Times Magazine’s director of photography, Kathy Ryan, about covering the city’s hospitals at the height of the pandemic. Irina Rozovsky contributes magisterial, sun-dappled visions of Brooklyn’s Prospect Park landscape. Hua Hsu writes poignantly about the archival photographs that emerged after a fire at the Museum of Chinese in America. Antwaun Sargent speaks with the founders of See In Black, an initiative to support Black photographers and communities. And Tanisha C. Ford profiles Jamel Shabazz, whose indelible images of 1980s street culture are icons of style and joy. Our lives and our city have been transformed over the past year, yet this issue reminds us of how much there is to discover, and relish, when New York comes roaring back.

With its vibrant street life, vast media industry, and influence on the fashion world, New York has long been considered the capital of photography. Since last March, though, life in the city has been altered in unthinkable ways due to the Covid-19 health crisis and the protests in support of Black lives. Aperture’s New York issue will be released on the one-year anniversary of the city’s shut down due to the Covid-19 crisis. The issue will honor community and public space in the city and highlight the distinct ways in which this city has fostered a vital image culture. Contributions will include Jamel Shabazz’s decades-long chronicle of Black life in the city; Deana Lawson’s distinct vision of Brooklyn; Vince Aletti on the tradition of the “New York issue” in magazine publishing; a conversation between Philip Montgomery and Kathy Ryan, Director of Photography at The New York Times Magazine; as well as highlights from a range of unique photo archives in the city. Additional contributors may include An-My Le?, Farah Al Qasimi, Ari Macropolous, Ryan McGinley, Irina Rozovksy, Olivia Laing, Jim Jarmusch, among others.