Aperture magazine has long been a cornerstone of photographic discourse, its pages consistently elevating photography as more than just a medium for capturing reality. Since its launch in 1952, it has set up itself as a platform where art, culture, and memory intersect. The Spring 2025 issue, Aperture No. 258, titled “Photography & Painting,” takes this legacy a step further, exploring the intricate relationship between the camera and the canvas. This is not a tale of two opposing forces, but a fascinating partnership, spanning nearly two centuries of shared creativity. Released on 1 March 2025, the 160-page quarterly brims with rich discussions and stunning visuals, celebrating the endless dialogue between these two art forms.

At the heart of the issue are conversations with three brilliant painters in Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Vija Celmins, and Christopher Wool whose works blur the boundaries between photographic reference and painterly execution. Njideka Akunyili Crosby’s Endless Returns masterfully fuses family photographs and found imagery to create layered meditations on Nigerian culture and identity. Her process, highlighted in a dialogue with Ikechúkwú Onyewuenyi, feels like stretching photography’s permanence across painting’s pliability. Vija Celmins, in conversation with photographer Richard Learoyd, reflects on her meticulous renderings of oceans and galaxies, which are inspired by photographic reference points yet push us to slow down, lingering in detail that defy the speed of the digital age. And Christopher Wool, known for his gritty and conceptual approach, offers insight into how his abstract forms and photographs engage in a constant, evolving conversation. These artists aren’t just borrowing from photography; they’re redefining how we experience memory and space.

Throughout the issue, this dialogue extends into essays and portfolios that enrich the conversation. In “In the Studio,” Brian Dillon explores photographers’ fascination with painterly workspaces, connecting Luigi Ghirri’s quiet images of Giorgio Morandi’s studio with Sally Mann’s intimate photographs of Cy Twombly’s space. The studio, it seems, is more than just a backdrop, it’s a space where art breathes, where the mediums begin to merge. David Campany’s “Abstraction as Event. Event as Abstraction” rewinds to the 1950s, tracing how abstract painting and photography found unexpected harmonies, from Pollock’s drips to Robert Frank’s dynamic frames. Lucy Ives’s “Photorealism’s Living History” redeems a movement once dismissed as kitsch, showing how its influence still resonates in hyperreal painting and digital manipulation today. Each essay serves as a reminder of how photography and painting have continuously sparked each other’s evolution.

The portfolios are a visual feast, each resonating with the issue’s themes in its own way. Kunié Sugiura’s cover work, grid-like forms blending painted blocks and X-rays, is an otherworldly experiment born from her hospitalisation in the 1990s. Shirana Shahbazi’s Palimpsest layers painterly abstraction over precise photographic imagery, offering dreamlike compositions, while Poppy Jones’s shadowy, enigmatic Souvenirs dodges nostalgia to embrace something more mysterious. Lia Darjes’s Vanitas transforms decay into delicate beauty, scavenging the language of still-life painting to create something entirely new. These portfolios aren’t just conversations between photography and painting; they’re proof of their symbiotic potential, where immediacy and depth collide to create a third, transcendent form.

Elsewhere, the issue is packed with thoughtful features and explorations of specific artistic threads. Lynne Tillman’s “Bonnard’s Camera” revisits Pierre Bonnard’s vibrant photographic impressions, blending lens and brushwork to illuminate his radiant canvases. Jarrett Earnest’s “Here’s Looking at You, Kid” unpacks how painters reinterpret iconic images like Britney Spears or Judy Garland’s Dorothy, a reflection of our image-saturated era. Alice Wong’s “Living Color” brings accessibility to the fore, exploring how photographs are overpainted to reimagine their forms and purpose. And “The Surface of Things,” featuring Vija Celmins, focuses on the act of close, deliberate looking, a refreshing alternative to today’s rapid consumption of visuals. These narratives don’t just deepen the dialogue between mediums, they challenge how we, as viewers, engage with art.

The issue is rounded out by compelling columns and reviews. Agenda highlights exhibitions such as Linder’s bold explorations and the celebrated Kyotographie festival, while Backstory digs into Hood Century modernism through the lens of Jane’a Johnson. Viewfinder by Kaelen Wilson-Goldie examines Sakir Khader’s raw conflict photography, and Timeline by Wendy A. Grossman looks at portrayals of African art. Meanwhile, Studio Visit with Lise Sarfati and Mohamed Bourouissa, and “Curriculum” nodding to Joseph Beuys, bring personal processes into sharp focus. These sections ground the issue firmly in the contemporary pulse, while keeping its global perspective alive and thriving.

Aperture wouldn’t be complete without its celebrated photobook reviews, now you know how much I LOVE a good photobook, and the Photobook Review section doesn’t disappoint. Larissa Pham’s “Break It Down” dives into the Vietnamese American New Wave, while Russet Lederman explores photobook covers that defy conventions. Chiara Bardelli Nonino’s conversation with Jason Fulford about Bruno Munari delves into the interplay of design and playfulness, while reviews of works by Yumna Al-Arashi, Larry Clark, and Lars Tunbjörk round off the issue with a nod to photography’s print legacy.

Aperture No. 258 is more than a magazine, it’s an invitation to slow down, to examine photography and painting not as separate worlds but as two facets of one creative language. The editors’ call for “fuller, and slower experiences” feels particularly poignant in today’s fast-paced digital landscape. This issue doesn’t just document a historic relationship; it reimagines it, offering a masterclass in how to look longer, think deeper, and feel more profoundly through the shared tools of brush and lens. It’s an essential read for anyone passionate about the art of seeing.

Has opened my eyes to painting and art in general being more linked to photography than I perhaps first thought.

Regards

Alex