BOUND AND UNBOUND: The Photobook and the Photographic Print

ROSEGALLERY is pleased to present BOUND AND UNBOUND: The Photographic Book and the Print. While photographic prints often stand at the forefront as iconic images in their own right, the photobook reveals the broader scope of a series, situating singular photographs within a larger narrative. The exhibition highlights two distinct ways of experiencing photographs: the book through the intimate act of turning pages, and the print through its scale and material presence. This interplay underscores the artistry of sequence, design, and craft while reaffirming the enduring significance of the photographic print. Together, singular prints and photobooks work in tandem, each holding their own weight and offering distinct yet complementary ways of experiencing photography.

By staging the books and prints together, BOUND AND UNBOUND examines the unique proposition that the book itself is not simply a vessel, but an additional artistic form that is dialogue with the photographic print. This exhibition becomes both a library and a gallery, a meditation on the multiple lives of photographs, and a testament to the enduring role of publishing in shaping the field of contemporary photography.

The Six by Six series, published by Nazraeli Press, occupies a rare and important place in the history of photographic publishing. Conceived as a set of finely crafted, limited-edition books paired with original prints, Six by Six is at once a publishing project, a collector’s art object, and a collective portrait of contemporary photography. With prints showcased on the walls, they expand outward, breaking free from the bound format; images are seen in a new scale, where gesture, surface, and detail can be apprehended differently.

This doubling, the page and the wall, reveals photography’s ability to inhabit multiple registers. Among many artists featured in the exhibition are works by Thomas Demand, Marilyn Minter, Catherine Opie, Carrie Mae Weems, and Alec Soth, whose work moves fluidly between the printed page and the collectible print, this shift of context underscores how each format amplifies distinct qualities of the image. In the book, photographs converse in sequence, forming narratives or visual poems. On the wall, they assert themselves as singular presences, suspended in space.

BOUND AND UNBOUND: The Photographic Book and the Print also features books from Luhz Press, Editorial RM, Schirmer/Mosel, and more, continuing the dialogue between the photobook as something democratic and portable, and the print as a singular, collectible entity.