American Destiny: Aperture 226

An urgent reflection on photography, labor, and community.

How does the photographer navigate our new national order? As debates about the economic future of the United States continue into a controversial presidential administration, the spring issue of Aperture Magazine, American Destiny, offers an urgent reflection on photography, labor, and community. From agricultural workers to those toiling on the factory floor, from regional cities weathering years of postindustrial decline to refugee populations assimilating into the heartland, the photographers featured in this issue are bound by a desire to reveal how lives are shaped by the ebb and flow of the economy. American Destiny maps geographies of economic promises unfulfilled, weighing how the interrelated factors of class, sexism, education, shifting demographics, racism, and stagnant wages have influenced social life in the United States.