John Edmonds releases limited-edition print from Father's Jewels project for Aperture's 70th anniversary

John Edmonds has created a limited-edition pigment print titled "Crying for the World" from his 2022 project Father's Jewels, commissioned for Aperture magazine's 70th anniversary issue. The work explores Black masculinity through staged tableaux featuring a group of men performing grief in New York, referencing both contemporary culture and African art traditions. Edmonds drew inspiration from Aperture's 1990 issue "The Body in Question," which addressed reproductive rights, the AIDS crisis, gender debates, and attacks on the National Endowment for the Arts during the culture wars. The photographer cast men he envisioned as a family unit in an old building selected for its temporal displacement, organizing their bodies within the frame to evoke emerging narratives and emotions. References range from The Sopranos television series to an Igbo sculpture representing parental spirits, 3-D printed for the project, around which the men gather as if participating in improvised rituals. Edmonds connects the work to 1990s debates about censorship, art, and religion, noting his own religious upbringing during that period and viewing artistic engagement with trauma as a human right. The edition consists of 10 prints plus 3 artist's proofs, each signed and numbered, with image dimensions of 20 x 13½ inches on 20 x 16 inch paper. Prints ship from New York within 3-5 days.