Monday, October 18, 2010

Chris Boot – New Aperture Foundation Executive Director

Aperture Announces Chris Boot as New Executive Director:

APERTURE ANNOUNCES APPOINTMENT OF NEW EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
October 18, 2010—New York, NY—The Board of Trustees of the Aperture Foundation announced today that Chris Boot, a veteran in the field of photography, has been appointed Executive Director, Aperture Foundation.
Mr. Boot has had a long and distinguished career in photography and photobook publishing. He worked for Magnum Photos from 1990-98, including as Director of Magnum, London, and, later, Magnum, New York. Subsequently he held the position of Editorial Director at Phaidon Press from 1998 until 2000. In 2001, Mr. Boot started his own company Chris Boot Ltd., based in London to work on projects independently, producing exhibitions and publishing his own list of books. Over the past eight years he has published many acclaimed photobooks, ranging from contemporary titles that push the boundaries of the medium, to books that provide a fresh perspective on the history of photography.
The Chris Boot imprint includes two ICP Infinity Awards winners – Lodz Ghetto Album (2004) and Things as They Are: Photojournalism in Context Since 1955 (2005); the latter was copublished with Aperture. Other notable titles include History by Luc Delahaye, The World from My Front Porch by Larry Towell, Mexico and Parrworld by Martin Parr (both copublished with Aperture), Beaufort West by Mikhael Subotzky, We English by Simon Roberts, Georgian Spring: a Magnum Journal, and most recently Infidel by Tim Hetherington, Where Children Sleep by James Mollison and Maske by Phyllis Galembo. He is also the author and editor of Magnum Stories (Phaidon, 2004).
While at Phaidon Press, Mr. Boot initiated photography titles including Boring Postcards from the collection of Martin Parr, Robert Capa, the Definitive Collection by Richard Whelan, Outland by Roger Ballen, Snaps by Elliott Erwitt, Heaven and Earth, The Photo Book: A History by Martin Parr and Gerry Badger and the Phaidon 55 series including volumes on Nan Goldin, Boris Mikhailov, Mary Ellen Mark, Shomei Tomatsu, David Goldblatt, Chris Killip, André Kertesz, Dorothea Lange and W. Eugene Smith. From 1984 until joining Magnum Photos in 1990, Mr. Boot was Director of The Photo Co-op (since renamed Photofusion), London’s leading independent photography resource and education centre.
Mr. Boot has a BA in Photography with Distinction from the Polytechnic of Central London, and a BA in English Literature with Honors from the Royal Holloway College, University of London.
“I’m delighted to welcome Chris Boot to Aperture,” says Celso Gonzalez-Falla, Chairman of the Board, Aperture. “His vast experience working in photography in a variety of positions, including as editor and publisher, and his passion for and knowledge of photography, makes him uniquely qualified to set Aperture’s course for the future as Aperture gears up to celebrate its 60th anniversary in 2012.”
Mr. Boot will join Aperture in January of 2011. He succeeds Juan García de Oteyza, who was Aperture’s executive director for two years.
Aperture—located in New York’s Chelsea art district—is a world-renowned non-profit publisher and exhibition space dedicated to promoting photography in all its forms. Aperture was founded in 1952 by photographers Ansel Adams, Dorothea Lange, Barbara Morgan, and Minor White; historian Beaumont Newhall; and writer/curator Nancy Newhall, among others. These visionaries created a new quarterly periodical, Aperture magazine, to foster both the development and the appreciation of the photographic medium and its practitioners. In the 1960s, Aperture expanded to include the publication of books (over five hundred to date) that comprise one of the most comprehensive and innovative libraries in the history of photography and art. Aperture’s programs now include artist lectures and panel discussions, limited-edition photographs, and traveling exhibitions that show at major museums and arts institutions in the U.S. and internationally.

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