Artist Talk: Jason Reed and Barry Stone on Photobooks
Jason Reed and Barry Stone, Red Truck from Boom and Dust, 2025. Courtesy of the artists.
Photography’s history is defined by its capacity for mass reproduction. From news magazines to scientific journals, the medium has always relied on printed distribution. Over the twentieth century, artists claimed the publishing process for themselves, establishing the photobook as an expansive, experimental independent art form. Today, photographers frequently prioritize the printed volume alongside, or in place of, the museum wall, using the physical book to exercise control over the image sequence and pacing, as well as to pair image and text to develop complex narrative structures not possible within gallery presentations.
Organized in conjunction with the exhibition Experimental Seeing: Russell Lee’s Pedagogical Legacy, this conversation between artists Jason Reed and Barry Stone examines the process and impact of photographic publishing. The discussion will address their individual practices and collaborative projects, centering on their recent monograph Boom and Dust (2025), a survey of a 40-mile stretch of highway that crosses the oil-rich lands of Texas’ Permian Basin. Grounded in their extensive exhibition and publishing histories, Reed and Stone will unpack how the book form actively shapes, scales, and distributes the photographic image.
A selection of the artists’ publications will be available for purchase following the program.
About the artists
Jason Reed is a Texas-based artist and Professor of Photography at Texas State University. Holding a BA in Geography from the University of Texas at Austin and an MFA in Photography from Illinois State University, his practice maps the intersecting spatial histories and ecologies of the southern Great Plains, where arid desert environments transition into prairie. Reed co-founded the participatory art and education initiative Borderland Collective in 2007. His recent printed matter project, Victory in the Wilderness Museum, investigates the historic and geographic dilemmas of the American West. His published volumes include Boom and Dust (with Barry Stone, 2025), Otherwise, It Would Be Just Another River (co-edited with Molly Sherman, 2023), and Field Work (2022). His publications are held in the collections of the Canadian Centre for Architecture, the Royal Danish Library, the Yale Rare Book and Manuscript Library, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Reed’s work has been exhibited at Artpace in San Antonio, the Krannert Art Museum, the Washington State History Museum, La Asamblea Legislativa in Mexico City, and the Harry Ransom Center.
Barry Stone is a Professor of Photography in the School of Art and Design at Texas State University. He earned a BA in Biology and an MFA in Studio Art from the University of Texas at Austin. Stone has exhibited internationally, with notable presentations at the Center for Art and Media (ZKM) in Karlsruhe, the Lianzhou Photography Festival, and Klaus von Nichtssagend Gallery in New York. Stone is the author of three monographs: Daily in a Nimble Sea (Silas Finch)—a finalist for the Lucie Photobook Awards and shortlisted for the National Gallery of Victoria Cornish Prize—alongside Drift and Lost Pines (2022). His photographs are included in the permanent collections of the Center for Art and Media (ZKM), the Henry Art Gallery, the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Yale University, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. His work has been reviewed in Harper’s Magazine, Artforum, Glasstire, and The New York Times. He is represented by Klaus von Nichtssagend Gallery, New York.