PDN - August 2011

PDNEWS
BY DAVID WALKER

QUESTION & ANSWER
HISTORY WILL GUIDE THE
FUTURE AT APERTURE

Late last year The Aperture Foundation, which will celebrate its 60th anniversary in 2012, appointed Chris Boot as their new executive director. Boot joined Aperture after having spent his career as a photographers’ representative, most notably with Magnum as their director in London and New York, and as an award-winning photo book editor and publisher, with Phaidon Press and Chris Boot, LTD, an imprint he founded.

At his first press conference as executive director, which took place at Aperture’s New York gallery in May, Boot discussed Aperture’s original mission statement, which delineated the foundation’s aspirations to be a central meeting point for ideas, discussion, and the advancement of the photographic medium. The foundation’s past, Boot appeared to be saying, would be the guide to its future. “We have a lot of work to do,” Boot told the crowd.

Seven months into his tenure, Boot sat down with PDN to discuss how the work of reshaping Aperture is coming along.

—Interview by Conor Risch

Above: Chris Boot at Aperture Gallery and bookstore. Exhibition on
view: “Wind, photographs by Jungiin Lee,” presented by Aperture and
sepiaEYE in March 2011.

PDN: What appealed to you about becoming
Executive Director at The Aperture Foundation?

CHRIS BOOT: I’ve worked with Aperture over the years, and been inspired and motivated by its work, and I wanted to be part of it. I feel like my history, combining work in education, in representing and promoting photographers, in community building, in publishing and working on magazines, has all been preparation for doing this job. I saw a place here where I thought I could be useful.

And I love it—I wake up every day excited about what we can do.

PDN: What is your mandate?

BOOT: Above all, my job is to establish the organization on a sustainable and viable basis for the future. The worlds of photography and photography publishing are changing so fast. These are dynamic and challenging times, and we have to figure out how we adapt to a new environment, to rethink what we do and how we do it.

PDN: How can Aperture fulfill its potential? BOOT: There are a lot of people out there, involved in or inspired by photography, who want to meet and talk and digest what’s happening in

Online News Digest

The following are excerpted from breaking news stories
posted recently on PDNOnline. To read the complete
stories and to find more news, posted daily, check out
www.pdnonline.com/pdn/newswire/index.jsp

Guy Martin Returns Home

The 28-year-old British photographer who was seriously injured in a deadly attack in misrata, Libya, April 20 was finally released from the hospital and returned home to his family June 2. Photojournalists Tim Hetherington and Chris Hondros were killed in the same attack, while michael Christopher Brown was also injured, though less seriously than martin. http:// bit.ly/ilNkjk

In Vampire Weekend Case, Photographer’s
Lawyers Petition to Quit
Attorneys representing Tod Brody, the photographer at
the center of a legal battle over the image on the cover
of a Vampire Weekend album, have asked to withdraw
from the case because their client is allegedly not
cooperating, and not paying his bills. Brody has been
accused of licensing the image with a forged model
release. http://bit.ly/lQF9aF

Twitpic Runs Roughshod Over Image Owners’ Rights A deal made by a London celebrity photo agency to distribute images uploaded to the photo sharing service Twitpic left Twitpic users without a share of any of the licensing revenues, and underscored the lack of control that they have over their images on Twitpic. http://bit.ly/iruty Y