Behind the Binding | September - October 2025

Stasia Schmidt with Charlotte Müller | Ephemerality | September 13th

Mark de Paulo | A Stab at Heaven | September 27th

Sylvie Blum | Wild Beauty | October 25th

More Photographers will be announced in the coming weeks!

Immerse yourself in the captivating world of photography at Leica Store and Gallery Meatpacking with our electrifying Saturday Morning series, Behind the Binding! Join us for invigorating conversations with renowned photographers, unraveling the stories behind their captivating works and acclaimed books.

Programming begins promptly at 11:00 AM.

Following each talk, indulge in signed books, bagels, and brewed coffee with the artist!

Seating is limited, so be sure to reserve your spot in advance!

Stasia Schmidt | Ephemerality | September 13th

Ephemerality: A Collection of Moments in the Wild showcases Stasia Schmidt's signature Ephemerality series and the landscapes that inspired it.

With images from the Canadian Rockies, Greenland, and the Gobi Desert in Mongolia, Schmidt has created a collection that speaks to her experiences in such harsh, unforgiving environments. Surreal and provocative, these images are a testament to the often unseen feminine presence in the wilderness and the wonder of being surrounded by nature in its rawest form.

Mark de Paulo | A Stab at Heaven | September 27th

The A Stab At Heaven monograph by Mark de Paola coincides with Mark de Paola and Ema McKie's forthcoming feature film A Stab At Heaven. A Stab At Heaven tells the true story of Ema McKie; when she was 18 years old, she drove across the country in order to join her recently deceased fiance. Grappling with grief, she discovers her will to live.

This fine art photography monograph features de Paola's photographs of Ema McKie during the making of the motion picture, as well as handwritten excerpts from Ema's stream of consciousness writing in the film.

The A Stab At Heaven book plunges you into Ema's internal journey rendered through de Paola's emotional lens, as if a personal diary and window into the subconscious. Pages of both color and black and white portraits and abstractions propel the viewer from traditional white border pages into the final section titled The Silent House, where images and words overlap in an interplay of scale and narrative.

De Paola and McKie have been longtime artistic collaborators having released a section of the Five Years and Sixty Seconds (2021) book together, created a limited edition print portfolio to collectors (2022), and worked on various other artistic endeavors together. This brilliant new book is an extension of the motion picture, and a tangible object as if poured from the screen and soul.

Sylvie Blum | Wild Beauty | October 25th

Wild Beauty presents an unparalleled collection of Sylvie Blum’s work, spanning 15 years of her career. This exceptional fine art book tells a story of our innate need for adventure, freedom and beauty. So many of us strive to feel and see extraordinary things on a daily basis and now the public has access to 224 pages of museum-worthy images that exude life’s most extraordinary moments.

All five of Sylvie’s limited edition books are sold out, and this will be her sixth and most ambitious book to date. The book is a selection of thousands of unpublished images, many of which are part of the permanent collection at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) Bangkok. It will include behind-the-scenes images and work sketches from Sylvie’s shoots in diverse locations such as South Africa, Namibia, Thailand, the Californian desert, and her white-box studio in Los Angeles. These insights provide a rare glimpse into the creative process and dedication behind each photograph.

About the Speakers

Stasia Schmidt is a fine art photographer based in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Her landscapes and portraits show attention to simplicity and form, as she is drawn to unexpected surrealism and femininity within the natural environment. Her work has been part of group exhibitions in Canada, the United States, and Europe. In addition to being the 2024 Canadian awardee of the Leica Women Foto Project, Stasia was recognized for the Ephemerality series in her home province of Alberta and was declared the 2024 Emerging Artist of the Year by the Exposure Photography Festival.

Ephemerality is being shown as a solo exhibition in Calgary as part of the 2025 festival. Her first art photo book, also titled Ephemerality, is being released this spring as a part of the Beautiful Bizarre Art Prize in Photography, which she received in 2024. The medium of photography is Stasia’s chosen method of exploring creative boundaries and challenging expectations in order to create provocative, vivid, and resonant art.

Charlotte Müller is the cofounder Snap Collective Publishing, a family-owned company with roots in Germany and Ukraine that’s redefining the way artists publish books. Snap Collective breaks down traditional barriers by helping artists publish high-quality art books without the usual financial obstacles, offering a bold new model that empowers creative voices worldwide.

A passionate innovator in the intersection of art, publishing, and storytelling, she leads projects that blend impact with imagination.

Born and raised in Germany, she immigrated to the U.S. in 2019 and now splits time between San Francisco, New York City, and Düsseldorf. She hols a B.A. in Art History and Philosophy from Humboldt University in Berlin and has completed expressive arts training at the Tamalpa Institute in California. Her background spans academic publishing and image consulting, all fueling my mission to create accessible platforms for artistic expression.

Mark de Paulo is a New York City-based fine art and fashion photographer and director with over 30 years of experience shooting campaign and fine art commissions for the likes of Vogue Spain, Vogue Mexico, Gucci, Oscar de la Renta, Prabal Gurung, David Koma, Roksanda, and Saint Laurent.

De Paola has directed several hundred television spots in the fashion/beauty sector including those for Giorgio RED Perfume (Bergdorf Goodman windows and MoMA NY), Ducati, Leica Camera, Sony, Neutrogena, and Ford Motorsports.

De Paola's fine art work is included in public collections such as the Museum of Modern Art, New York, The Getty in Los Angeles, the San Diego Center of Photographic Arts, and the TOP Museum in Tokyo. His photography monographs Recent Work I (2018), Recent Work II (2019), and Five Years and Sixty Seconds (2020) can be found with Leica Camera retailers in major cities worldwide. De Paola's solo exhibitions have traveled around the world including Los Angeles, San Francisco, Dali (China), Tokyo, Milan (Triennale Museum), and at home in New York City.

De Paola's pictorialist work as a still and motion artist has been driven by his studies of the neurobiology and cognitive psychology of human vision.

Austrian-born Sylvie Blum started a career in modeling prior taking the helm as a photographer. Sylvie has worked as a well-known art and fashion model for 16 years in front of the camera with esteemed photographers such as Helmut Newton, Jan Saudek, Lucien Clergue, Jeanloup Sieff.

In 1991, she met legendary artist and photographer Günter Blum and became “his model, his muse, his wife”. By his side, Sylvie refined her understanding of light, composition, dark room techniques and other aspects of photography. After her husband’s long illness and death in 1997, Sylvie bought a Polaroid SX-70 and initially started photographing herself and published her first book “Venus” in 2000.

Fascinated by artistic nudes, as they were so perfectly presented in the 1930’s by photographic legends such as George Hoyningen-Huene or Horst P. Horst, Sylvie Blum started creating body fragments, photographic torsos that attain an almost sculptural impression in the artistic lighting and delicate gradation of gray tones.

From 2002 - 2019 Sylvie published 5 art books dedicated to the human form. Her pop art "selfies" soon became famous amongst art collectors and museums. Whether on the trail of Ansel Adams, Leni Riefenstahl or Herbert List, her images all have something in common. British Maxim stated “… Sylvie is the Ansel Adams of the nude female form.”

In 2005 Sylvie relocated to the USA, soon working on different art projects. Sylvie met David Fahey in Los Angeles, who soon became her mentor and artistic inspiration. In 2011, her book "Naked Beauty" edited by David Fahey was published by TeNeues Publishing group. The Fahey Klein Gallery exhibited her work together with iconic photographer Herb Ritts. The Museum of Contemporary Art MOCA in BANGKOK exhibited Sylvie Blum’s work titled “Naked Beauty” in a 10,000 sqft exhibition showing 300 images. Sylvie Blum’s iconic images remain in the permanent collection and exhibition of the MOCA.

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