This event is free for students with ID and Aperture Members at the $50 level and above.

Aperture Foundation, in collaboration with the Department of Photography at Parsons The New School for Design, is pleased to present an artist talk with Yann Gross. Gross’s photographs showcase the mysticism of humanity and the different ways in which we inhabit the world. Featuring subjects that range from young skateboarders in Eastern Africa to an Americanized community living in the valleys of Switzerland, Gross’s photographs delve deep into the notion of escapism and identity while continuously questioning our own misconceptions of culture. Masterfully constructed and controlled, his images offer insight into the lives of under-recognized societies. In his most recent publication, The Jungle Book: Contemporary Stories of the Amazon and Its Fringe (Aperture, 2016), Gross creates a visual experience of the diverse worlds that inhabit contemporary Amazonia. In the introduction, Arnaud Robert describes the disappointment of those who visit the Amazon in the hopes of finding an enchanted land: “Old-world expeditions have been replaced by all-inclusive trips and mosquito screens, the odor of the antipodes without their bitter taste.”

The Jungle Book will be available for purchase and a book signing will follow.

Yann Gross (born in Vevey, Switzerland, 1981) is a photographer, filmmaker, and designer who graduated from École Cantonale d’Art de Lausanne in 2007. Gross has received numerous awards for his work, including the PHotoEspaña Discoveries Week Award (2008), Photography Award at the International Festival of Fashion and Photography, Hyères, France (2010), and LUMA Rencontres Dummy Book Award for The Jungle Book(2015). Gross is a member of the international artist collective Piece of Cake and the cofounder of Canal GuaTeKa, an Internet channel created for indigenous youth living in Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil.

Image: Turtle shell cap, 2012; from The Jungle Book(Aperture, 2016) © Yann Gross

For more information, please visit the Aperture Foundation website.