News & Updates

Half Gallery, founded by Bill Powers, is partnering on the most comprehensive Richard Prince book exhibition to date in North America, opening February 22nd at LEADGRAM in Los Angeles. The exhibition features rare invites, drawings on books, prints, and larger works spanning Prince's extensive engagement with the book as medium and subject.

The show includes Penance, a 2012 collaboration between Richard Prince and the late Glenn O'Brien. The project, originally conceived as a modern-day confessional staged at the Chelsea Hotel in May 2012, was later published as a limited edition book documenting O'Brien's performance piece offering absolution to participants. Half Gallery produced the original 2012 event, making this a significant reunion of that historic project with the broader context of Prince's book-based practice.

Richard Prince, one of the most influential appropriation artists of his generation, has long engaged with the democratization of images through mass media, advertising, and publishing. His work spans photography, painting, sculpture, and artist books, frequently exploring American mythologies and subcultural aesthetics. This exhibition marks a rare opportunity to examine Prince's multifaceted relationship with printed matter and the book form.

Half Gallery, established in 2008 by Bill Powers, is dedicated to championing emerging artists and presenting thoughtfully curated exhibitions. Powers, a former culture journalist who has contributed to ARTnews and Purple magazine, brings his editorial sensibility to the gallery's programming. The exhibition opens February 22nd at LEADGRAM in Los Angeles.

New York City remains the epicenter of the photography world, and for those who love the tangible magic of a well-crafted photobook, 2026 is shaping up to be an incredible year. From massive international fairs to intimate club meet-ups, the calendar is packed with opportunities to discover new publishers, meet artists, and dive deep into the printed image.

The Major Fairs and Festivals

The Photography Show presented by AIPAD
April 22–26, 2026
Park Avenue Armory (643 Park Ave)

While AIPAD is famous for premier gallery exhibitions of vintage and contemporary prints, their dedicated sector for photobook publishers is one of the best places to buy rare editions and see the finalists for the prestigious Aperture Portfolio Prize up close.

ICP Photobook Fest 2026
May 8–10, 2026
International Center of Photography (84 Ludlow St)

Held at ICP's striking Lower East Side location, this three-day festival is entirely dedicated to photo-based publishing. It features a bustling fair with over 85 indie publishers, alongside a packed schedule of artist-led discussions and book signings. A high-energy, community-focused weekend.

Brooklyn Book Festival
Sunday, September 27, 2026
Downtown Brooklyn/Borough Hall vicinity

As NYC's largest free literary event, the Brooklyn Book Festival isn't strictly photography-focused, but the "Literary Marketplace" always features a strong contingent of independent art book and photobook publishers. The perfect autumn day out for browsing.

Must-See Exhibitions and Artist Talks

Paris Photo–Aperture PhotoBook Awards Shortlist Exhibition
Through March 8, 2026
Printed Matter Chelsea

This essential annual exhibition displays the shortlist for the 2025 awards—a definitive look at the best photobooks produced globally over the last year. Complementing the exhibition are artist talks: February 28 with Genesis Báez and Martha Naranjo Sandoval, and March 4 focused on archive-based photobooks with Alanna Fields and Keisha Scarville.

FLASHPOINT! Protest Photography in Print 1950–Present
March 12 – May 31, 2026
Printed Matter Chelsea

This forthcoming exhibition explores the crucial role of photobooks, zines, and posters in documenting and fueling protest movements over the last seven decades, including a scheduled conversation on political protest posters on April 2.

Workshops and Community Meet-Ups

ICP Photobook Club
Last Saturday of each month, 11:00 AM – 1:00 PM
The ICP Library

A relaxed setting to meet fellow enthusiasts. The February 28 session, hosted by Claudia de la Torre, focuses on "Holding the Image." Free, RSVPs required through ICP's website.

Magnum Workshop: In Focus
March 16–20, 2026
With Matt Black & Yolanda Cuomo

This intensive workshop features Magnum photographer Matt Black and legendary design icon Yolanda Cuomo. The final day (March 20) is dedicated entirely to editing and sequencing a photobook. Currently full with a waiting list available.

Whether you're a serious collector, an aspiring publisher, or just someone who loves the smell of fresh ink on paper, 2026 offers an exceptional calendar of photobook events in New York City.

Congratulations to Russet Lederman and Olga Yatskevich of 10×10 Photobooks on this landmark achievement.

10×10 Photobooks has announced that the collection assembled for What They Saw: Historical Photobooks by Women, 1843–1999 has been acquired by the Library of the Instituto Moreira Salles (IMS) in São Paulo, Brazil. The collection will be known as "Coleção 10×10 Photobooks: Fotolivros Históricos de Mulheres" and will serve as the foundation for the next What They Saw Reading Room exhibition at IMS, on view from 17 March to 2 August 2026.

Amassed during the COVID-19 pandemic, the collection includes 111 photobooks by women, originally purchased by 10×10 Photobooks for research, documentation, and exhibition purposes to support the publication and its international reading room tour. The What They Saw publication — which won the 2021 Paris Photo–Aperture Foundation PhotoBook Award (Catalogue of the Year) and the 2022 Kraszna-Krausz Book Award — presents a global range of 200 photobooks by female photographers spanning from Anna Atkins' pioneering 1843 cyanotypes through lesser-known contributions by women worldwide.

The reading room has previously traveled to the New York Public Library (2022), Enter Enter and the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam (2022), Boston Athenaeum (2023), Museo Reina Sofía in Madrid (2024), and the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles (2025). The São Paulo iteration at IMS Paulista will feature approximately 100 volumes from the acquired collection alongside new additions of books by Brazilian women photographers from the IMS Photography Library's holdings of nearly 20,000 volumes.

The Instituto Moreira Salles, founded in 1987 by Walther Moreira Salles, is dedicated to research, preservation, and promotion of Brazilian cultural heritage across photography, literature, iconography, music, and contemporary art. Its Photography Library at IMS Paulista — considered one of the most complete in Brazil — houses catalogs, historical periodicals, contemporary photobooks, and artists' publications, and offers courses, talks, and bibliographic exhibitions.

10×10 Photobooks is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) founded in 2012 by Russet Lederman and Olga Yatskevich that champions thoughtful engagement with the photobook through reading rooms, salons, publications, research grants, and partnerships with arts organizations worldwide. The acquisition ensures the What They Saw collection now has a permanent, publicly accessible home.

The Gordon Parks Foundation celebrates its 20th anniversary with a yearlong series of exhibitions, publications, fellowships, and events highlighting how Gordon Parks' legacy continues to inform contemporary artistic practice. Since its founding in 2006 by Parks and his longtime friend Philip B. Kunhardt, Jr., the Foundation has steadily expanded its capacity to support emerging, mid-career, and late-career artists across multiple disciplines.

The anniversary year includes several major initiatives: exhibitions at the Foundation's Pleasantville, NY gallery featuring works by fellows and prize recipients (through March 20, 2026), plus museum and gallery exhibitions worldwide including Instituto Moreira Salles in São Paulo, Alison Jacques Gallery in London, and Jack Shainman Gallery in New York. Two significant publications will be released through Steidl: an expanded edition of Gordon Parks: Diary of A Harlem Family, 1967/1968 featuring newly discovered images and ephemera, and Andre D. Wagner: New City, Old Blues, awarded The Gordon Parks Foundation/Steidl Book Prize.

The Foundation will announce its 2026 Fellows in Art, the Genevieve Young Fellow in Writing, and the inaugural Fellow in Music in the coming weeks. The 2026 Gala celebrating figures at the intersection of arts and social justice takes place May 19th. A new library at the Foundation's headquarters, featuring a complete set of Steidl publications, was recently completed. Learn more about the Fellowship in Art program and the Gordon Parks Foundation.

Hudson Street Library announces significant expansion of two major collection areas. The Christopher Wool holdings now include nine comprehensively cataloged artist books spanning 2003-2025, including the newly acquired 'See Stop Run' (Wool 101 Greenwich Inc., 2025), the 400-page expanded artist's book documenting the landmark 101 Greenwich Street exhibition. This major catalogue features nearly 300 photographs by dozens of artists, friends, and Instagram users, plus an extensive interview between Wool and curator Anne Pontégnie. All Wool titles now feature verified metadata including complete publication details, dimensions, ISBN numbers, and high-resolution cover images sourced from Holzwarth Publications and other verified publishers. The collection spans the artist's photographic work from his early Lower East Side series (East Broadway Breakdown, 2003) through his Marfa, Texas series (Westtexaspsychosculpture, Road, Yard, Swamp, 2017-2019) to his recent material explorations (Bad Rabbit, 2022). Additionally, all 33 individual Purple Magazine issues from the library's holdings are now cataloged with dedicated pages, completing a significant gap in the periodicals collection. This represents two weeks of intensive cataloging work ensuring proper scholarly access to these important contemporary art resources. All materials available for viewing by appointment.

We are thrilled to announce the acquisition of 'Rythm Mastr: This Is How It Begins' by Kerry James Marshall, edited by Michele Robecchi (Rizzoli Electa, 2025). This comprehensive volume presents Marshall's iconic comic series created in the late 1990s as a direct response to the absence of authentic Black characters and authors in mainstream comics. The series follows Rythm Mastr and his young protégé Farell, superheroes whose powers derive from the seven gods of the Yoruba pantheon. Marshall's characters engage in sophisticated debates about history, philosophy, and politics in vernacular Black English, creating an empowering blend of science fiction and Afrofuturism. Initially serialized in a daily newspaper and presented as a Carnegie International installation, the work has appeared in various forms including light boxes, paintings, graphic prints, and drawings over the past two decades. This first edition hardcover represents the most comprehensive documentation of the character, its genesis, and evolution. As one of America's greatest living painters and chroniclers of the African American experience, Marshall's work continues to challenge and expand our understanding of representation in visual culture. This important addition strengthens our collection of contemporary art, African American art, and graphic narratives, now available for viewing by appointment.