PastForward salutes Aperture’s local roots with edgy revelations.

Just three weeks into January, it is hard to imagine seeing a better or more interesting photography show this year than PastForward, Aperture at 50, opening Saturday at the Monterey Museum of Art.

The traveling retrospective exhibit is a celebration marking the 50th anniversary of the founding of Aperture, the most influential publisher of photography books and magazines, as well as a testament to the creative vitality of the 20th century’s most important art form.

More than 150 images by 100 photographers will be on display. The images, done in all styles and genres, date from 1917 to 1997, but are interspersed non-chronologically and juxtaposed to create what Michelle Dunn Marsh, Director of Aperture West and assistant organizer of the MMA show, describes as a “dialogue.”

“The variety of work—from hard-hitting photojournalism to conceptual art and beautiful landscapes—pushes people to think about history and art and the times we live in in profound ways,” Marsh says.

The exhibition is a veritable “who’s who” of photographic luminaries past and present, including Sebastiao Salgado, Diane Arbus, Mary Ellen Mark, Paul Strand, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Annie Leibovitz, Brassai Atget, Minor White, Joel-Peter Witkin, Brett and Edward Weston and Alfred Stieglitz.

“The work was assembled not to make a ‘greatest hits’ show, but to show work from artists that was unknown or unusual,” Marsh says. “In many cases the artists themselves chose the work and picked images that were contemporary or brand new.”

The exhibit represents a homecoming of sorts, and a recognition of the important influence of Central Coast photography on the medium generally and Aperture in particular. It was here in 1952 that Minor White, Ansel Adams, Dody Warren, Barbara Morgan, Dorothea Lange and others conceived the idea of publishing a small periodical to promote and nurture photography both artistically and intellectually. Aperture has gone on to publish 400 books, including landmark works like Robert Frank’s The Americans and Diane Arbus’s first monograph. It has also become the virtual center of dialogue on the nature and meaning of photographic art. The foundation is also an important sponsor of exhibitions, workshops and grants for photographers.

By its presence here at the MMA, the Aperture show also pays tribute to the museum’s important role as a collecting institution, and its efforts to promote the work of past and contemporary Central Coast photographers.

“I know Aperture really wanted this exhibit to be in Monterey,” says MMA acting curator Helaine Glick. “They really worked with us not only because of the legacy of Weston and Adams, but for all the photography that came out of this area, including photographers that still work here.”

In addition to providing a retrospective, the exhibit is guaranteed to shake up viewers’ understanding of what photography can attain.

“There are some controversial images—not what people are used to seeing,” Glick says.

The show was originally curated in 2002 by Aperture editor Melissa Harris with the idea of bypassing major museums for smaller venues. “Monterey was a very important venue,” Dunn says. “Obviously the area is significant in the history of American photography and Aperture was born there, if you will. We’re enthusiastic to have the coming to fruition there.” a