Rockefeller Center + Aperture: New York

To mark the publication of Aperture magazine’s “New York”—a special issue honoring the city through photographs and essays by visionary artists and writers, from Roe Ethridge, Jamel Shabazz, and Rosalind Fox Solomon, to Hilton Als, Edwidge Danticat, Lynne Tillman, and Joseph O’Neill— Rockefeller Center and Aperture are collaborating to create a month-long public installation celebrating New York, in the heart of the city, that includes outdoor public art exhibitions, a virtual talk series, a pop-up store, and more.

One year after COVID-19 struck New York City, the collaboration celebrates photography’s role in conveying the character and identity of the city, and in shaping our imaginations for its future.

​Register here for Rockefeller Center + Aperture: Conversations.

Between March 27–April 30, 2021, Rockefeller Center and Aperture’s collaboration features:

• The launch of Aperture magazine’s “New York” issue, with virtual conversations with contributing photographers and writers—including Jamel Shabazz, Tanisha C. Ford, Irina Rozovsky, and Widline Cadet—live on Zoom from Rockefeller Center locations such as Rainbow Room and Top of the Rock.

• An outdoor exhibition of New York City street and subway photographs by Jamel Shabazz, who has methodically created street portraits throughout the city for forty years. Fourteen of Shabazz’s portraits will be displayed in the heart of the city, installed on six-foot-tall lightboxes across Rockefeller Center’s public plazas.

• An Aperture engagement space, with prints and books for sale, and artist signings and appearances, at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, located on 49th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. The space will be open to the public Tuesday thru Saturday, 10:30am to 6:30pm daily.

• The Flag Project 2021: A public art installation celebrating the medium of photography that called on the public to submit photographs inspired by New York City, with 83 winning submissions being produced as flags and flown from the iconic flagpoles of Rockefeller Center from March 27–April 30, 2021