Bound Leather

Bound Leather is an ongoing photographic series and self-published project by Steven Harwick that explores the aesthetics, mythology, and social codes of American leather and fetish culture. Through a combination of staged and documentary portraiture, the work examines leather’s evolution as both an emblem of masculine toughness and a subversive language of desire, rebellion, and identity. Drawing on the visual legacies of postwar biker iconography, underground queer imagery, and mid-century Americana, Bound Leather situates its subjects within a lineage that bridges working-class labor, erotic performance, and fashion.Harwick approaches the project as both observer and participant, using the camera as a tool for anthropological inquiry and emotional intimacy. His portraits emphasize the materiality of leather—the sheen, weight, and ritual of dressing—as a form of coded communication and self-definition. Rooted in traditions of self-publishing and zine culture, Bound Leatherfunctions as a tactile archive: a study of contemporary subcultural identity and its intersections with performance, power, and desire in post-industrial America.