Aperture No. 264 – Stop Time, guest edited by Hiroshi Sugimoto (Fall 2026)

Aperture No. 264, Stop Time, is guest edited by Hiroshi Sugimoto, whose six-decade career has redefined the metaphysical possibilities of photography. As guest editor, he turns the magazine into a time machine. The issue brings together artists and writers who reflect on the origins of photography, the nature of light, the history of scientific imaging, the mysteries of color and the miracle of vision, and on photography's dialogue between impermanence and eternity.

Michael Famighetti interviews Sugimoto, who also writes on photography's origins and endings and annotates objects from his cabinet of curiosities. Marigold Warner visits Enoura Observatory, an artist's refuge for contemplation. Zoë Lescaze looks at the uncanny world of museum dioramas, Lucy Ives at the long shadow of the camera obscura, Regina Marler at Man Ray's Mathematical Objects, Brian Dillon at how photographers invented a new kind of present tense, and Brad Bolman at Newton's optical experiments, which unveiled a novel way of seeing the world.

The columns include Stephen Shore on how to sharpen your mind's eye, a portfolio of Carlos Jaramillo's South Central portraits, a history of gag photography, and an endnote by John Wilson on rare images, the old Times Square and the history of concrete. The PhotoBook Review has Petra Collins in conversation with Thora Siemsen about fandom and obsession, a look at a new wave of film-related photobooks, a review of a new book on Vilém Flusser, and reviews of photobooks by Jack Davison, Kazuo Kitai, Newsha Tavakolian and others.