More than $1 million changed hands for photography on Thursday night, under the watchful eye of a blue whale.
Aperture held its 2026 gala November 5 in the American Museum of Natural History’s Milstein Hall of Ocean Life, where guests gathered beneath the museum’s 94-foot whale to honor photographers Deana Lawson and Hiroshi Sugimoto. The evening raised more than $1 million for the nonprofit publisher’s books, magazine and arts programs, according to Aperture. Belmond presented the benefit.
The setting held a neat circularity for Sugimoto. The Japanese artist began his Dioramas series by photographing the museum’s displays in the 1970s. Sarah Meister, who introduced him, said he had “redefined the metaphysical possibilities of the still image.” Aperture trustee Kenneth Montague introduced Lawson, praising her portraits for the attention and respect they demand for their subjects.
The auctions offered plenty of reasons to lift a paddle: a Sugimoto gelatin-silver print, a unique Richard Learoyd photograph, a commissioned portrait sitting with Tina Barney and a private artist-led tour of Taryn Simon’s Guggenheim exhibition. Another lot promised a journey aboard the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express.
Among the artists and photographers Aperture reported in attendance were Barney, Dawoud Bey, Mitch Epstein, Rahim Fortune, Martine Gutierrez, Lyle Ashton Harris, Justine Kurland, An-My Lê, Danny Lyon, Stephen Shore, Taryn Simon and Deborah Willis.
For Aperture, founded in 1952, the evening followed the opening of its permanent Upper West Side home at 380 Columbus Avenue in September. There was an apt neighborhood quality to the occasion: a photographic institution celebrating two artists in the museum whose displays helped launch one of their careers, just a short walk from its new headquarters.
Reporting based on information supplied by Aperture. Photographs supplied by Aperture.
