Richard Misrach: Cargo (January 2, 2024, 7:06 a.m.)

Aperture is pleased to release this limited-edition print by Richard Misrach on the occasion of the publication Cargo (Aperture, 2025).

Misrach works in grand scale. Photographing throughout the American West since the mid-1970s, he has produced a wide-ranging survey of the political, environmental, industrial, and social changes of the last half-century. A pioneering documentarian, Misrach constructs large-format compositions that lean into the tension between formal aesthetics and political idealism. He formed what would become his epic masterpiece Desert Cantos, in 1979; the ongoing work remains an indelible record of the human impact on nature.

In 2021, Misrach began to document the Port of Oakland from a vantage point overlooking the San Francisco Bay. Cargo (January 2, 2024, 7:06 a.m.) is among the works in this series. Vast, painterly seascapes pockmarked with ships take new meaning for Misrach, referencing global supply chain issues and the realities of global capitalism. “To me, the work I do is a means of interpreting unsettling truths, of bearing witness, and of sounding an alarm,” Misrach has said. “The beauty of formal representation both carries an affirmation of life and subversively brings us face to face with news from our besieged world.”

Proceeds from the sale of this work directly support Aperture’s nonprofit publishing, educational and public programs.

Each limited-edition print is hand-packed with great care and ships from New York within 3–5 days.