M. Hoffman, 59; Publisher of Fine Art Photography

Michael Hoffman, the director of the Aperture Foundation, which publishes fine art photography books and Aperture magazine, has died. He was 59.

Hoffman died Nov. 23 in New York City of complications from meningitis.

As a college student, Hoffman began working with Aperture in 1964 after attending a workshop with Minor White, the influential photographer who helped found Aperture in 1952.

Hoffman took over the business end of the operation and later launched the book publishing operation. Aperture’s first monograph, “Edward Weston: The Flame of Recognition,” sold more than 200,000 copies. With White, he produced such influential books as “The Americans,” photographs by Robert Frank (1968), and “Being Without Clothes” (1970).

A nonprofit publishing concern, Aperture has produced more than 300 photography books, including works by Sally Mann, Mary Ellen Mark and Sebastiao Salgado.

It has published controversial work for photographers that no other publisher would touch, including the book of work by Diane Arbus, which sold more than 200,000 copies.

Aperture magazine, a quarterly journal, is widely respected among photography enthusiasts for its high-quality reproduction and broad diversity.

Hoffman also founded the Alfred Stieglitz Center at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, serving as its curator for three decades. Many of the shows presented at the center grew out of work first shown in Aperture magazine.

Born in New York City, Hoffman graduated from St. Lawrence University in Canton, N.Y., with a bachelor’s degree in history and religion. He spent time as a rodeo rider and bead salesman in Montana before turning to publishing.

He is survived by his wife, Melissa Harris, an editor at Aperture; two children from his first marriage; and a granddaughter.