Aperture Foundation Appoints New Executive Director

Chris Boot Appointed New Executive Director of Aperture Foundation

October 18, 2010—Chris Boot, author, editor, and seasoned photographer, has been appointed Executive Director of the internationally celebrated Aperture Foundation. He will succeed Juan García de Oteyza in January 2011.

Founded in 1952, Aperture’ s mission is to support and attract public attention to the art of photography. The nonprofit’ s publishing house boasts over 500 titles, and also produces the quarterly Aperture magazine. The Foundation additionally sponsors traveling exhibitions and lecturers. In 2005, Aperture opened its own 3,000-square-foot gallery in the Chelsea arts district of New York City, which features work by a wide range of international artists.

Boot brings a wealth of experience to his newly appointed position. Holding Bachelor’ s degrees in both Photography and English Literature, he draws from an interdisciplinary background that has distinguished him in a number of fields. From 1984 to 1990, he served as the Director of London’ s Photo Co-op (now Photofusion), a resource center and gallery. For the next eight years, he worked for Magnum Photos as the Director of both the London and New York branches. He then went on to become the Editorial Director of Phaidon Press, and in 2001, he founded his own publishing company, Chris Boot Ltd.

Texts released by Boot’ s company, which publishes “ contemporary titles by photographers pushing the boundaries of the medium alongside books that seek to reveal the history of photography afresh,” include two recipients of the ICP Infinity Award: Lodz Ghetto Album (2004) and Things as They Are: Photojournalism in Context Since 1955 (2005). Boot is also the author and editor of Magnum Stories, published in 2004.

Celso Gonzalez-Falla, Chairman of Aperture’ s Board of Trustees, has expressed enthusiasm in welcoming Boot to the Foundation, noting that his unique set of qualifications will be an asset as the nonprofit approaches its 60th anniversary.

CATHERINE E. BAILEY

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