Playtime

Playtime Synopsis

In role-play and sex-play, illuminating theater, jokes, leisure, and fantasy.

This edition of Aperture focuses on "Playtime." Taking its name from the 1967 film by Jacques Tati, the articles and portfolios explore how photography illuminates, facilitates, and participates in the many definitions of play-from role-play and sex-play to theater and jokes to leisure and fantasy.

The issue features an interview with artist Chrisian Marclay about improvisation and the relationship between images and sounds; a conversation with Erwin Wurm about the possibilities and risks of using humor in contemporary art; and new, never-before-published work by Sophie Calle. Additionally, writer Eric Banks visits Saul Leiter's studio; Tim Davis examines the art of the photographic one-liner; Robin Kelsey surveys the artists who turned to games, whimsy, and clowning around in the 1960s and '70s; and Aveek Sen considers Italo Calvino's short story "The Adventure of a Photographer." Plus portfolios from Jo Ann Callis, Kauyoshi Usui, Bruno Munari, James Mollison, a little-known group of Cambridge University students who scaled campus buildings in the 1930s, and more.