Bound Leather

The Second Honourable Mention goes to Steven Harwick for Bound Leather. 

With Bound Leather, Steven Harwick explores the visual language, mythology, and enduring symbolism of American leather culture.

Moving between staged portraiture and documentary observation, the series traces the historical lineage of leather as both uniform and code — from the motorcycle clubs formed by returning veterans after World War II to its later reinterpretation within queer visual culture. Over time, these symbols of toughness and rebellion evolved into complex expressions of desire, identity, performance, and belonging.

Harwick’s photographs examine how these visual codes continue to shift today. His subjects — representing a wide range of gender expressions — inhabit, challenge, and reimagine the archetype of the leather-clad figure. In these portraits, masculinity appears both constructed and fluid, simultaneously evoking strength, vulnerability, ritual, and play.

Rooted in Harwick’s long engagement with independent publishing and DIY image-making, Bound Leather also reflects photography’s dual power as both documentation and myth-making. The work preserves fragments of a living subculture while acknowledging its ongoing transformation.

Through a visual language that is bold, theatrical, and deeply collaborative, Bound Leather reveals leather not simply as a material or aesthetic, but as a shared symbolic system — one that continues to negotiate ideas of power, intimacy, identity, and visibility.