Aperture Opens Its Long-Awaited Gallery and Headquarters on the Upper West Side

By Scott Etkin

Lovers of photography have a new spot to visit on the Upper West Side. After four years of planning and renovation, Aperture, the nonprofit photography organization, is opening its doors in a historic building just across the street from the Museum of Natural History.

The headquarters at 380 Columbus Avenue between West 78th and 79th streets, includes office space for the organization’s 30 full-time employees, storage for archival prints and books (it has 1,000 titles on its backlist), a small bookshop, and an exhibition gallery that will double as an event space.

“The idea is, it’s a welcoming space. It’s free and open to the public,” said executive director  Sarah Meister on a recent tour of the building with the Rag. “You know, come on in. There are comfortable chairs. There are tables. Sit down, read a book, buy one.”

The opening Friday marks a new chapter for the organization. Founded in 1952 by writers and photographers, including Ansel Adams and Dorothea Lange, Aperture is known for its art books, high-quality prints, and quarterly magazine. The organization was previously located in Chelsea. Its gallery space and bookstore there has been closed since 2018.

The decision to move uptown was announced in September 2022, following Aperture’s $8.95 million purchase of 10,000 square feet of commercial space in the landmarked building known as the Evelyn.

While the organization originally planned to open in 2024, the opening date was pushed back at least three times, in part because the renovation turned out to be more extensive than anticipated.

One of the biggest engineering challenges was shoring up the foundation of the 140-year-old building. This required 600 gallons of injection grouting to be filled into boreholes to stabilize voids in the dirt below the building’s concrete.

“It’s like Botox for buildings,” said Meister.

Visitors to 380 Columbus might remember its previous incarnation as Ocean Grill, the restaurant that closed in 2015. Aperture and its architectural firm, LEVENBETTS, “left traces of history around” in order to preserve the “authenticity of the material,” according to Meister.

The exposed bricks and beams give the interior an industrial-chic aesthetic. “People look at these walls and [ask], ‘well, you’re going to clean them?’ And the answer is actually they have been cleaned and sealed extensively,” said Meister.

Aperture has also left intact some of the quirks of the building, such as a fireplace that appears midway up the wall near the entrance, a remnant from when it was a residential building. 

The gallery and bookshop is up a short flight of steps (Aperture installed an elevator), which is also planned to be used occasionally as a 45-seat event space. Talks by artists will be open to the public for free or at low cost.

Aside from the gallery, the rest of the two floors are dedicated to storing Aperture’s books and prints, and to offices where its staff will work on new publications.

Prior to the renovation, the state of the basement was of particular concern when it was initially shown to staff. “They looked at me like, you know, ‘you’re sending me to the dungeon.’ I mean, it looked horrible,” said Meister.

Coincidentally, Meister remembers frequenting this basement with her friends when she was a teenager and the space was Alice Underground, a vintage clothing store. Meister grew up on the Upper East Side.

Back upstairs in the gallery, almost all the photographs on display will change regularly, which Meister hopes will give visitors a reason to come back to Aperture. The only permanent photograph is a portrait by Kwame Brathwaite.

The opening exhibition, “Aperture Loves New York,” includes photographs from Aperture’s collection alongside books by Diane Arbus, Robert Frank, Nan Goldin, and more.

“All the installations in the gallery will connect to our work, either to a current issue of the magazine, to a book we’re publishing, to our program, but without trying to pretend to be a museum or a commercial gallery or a school or anything else,” said Meister.

“Aperture Loves New York” will feature 24 photographs by 24 different photographers. It is on view through Nov. 1. The gallery and bookshop will be open to the public Wednesdays through Sundays.

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