Recommended photo books by Photo Art Books - Mr & Mrs: a publishing gem by visual artist Suwon Lee
- Suwon Lee
- 19 mar
- 4 Min. de lectura
Photo Art Books » Recommended Photo books »
March 19, 2025
(3 min read)
We expand our recommended photobooks section with a project about family albums, memory, and cultural identity: Mr & Mrs by Korean-Venezuelan visual artist Suwon Lee. A publishing treasure honoring her ancestors and the art of vernacular photography, the book is now part of the library collections of the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (Madrid) and MoMA (New York).
When we first held Mr & Mrs, one of the things that caught our attention was its design. Designer Jaime Narváez has meticulously crafted every detail. This is not your typical family album photobook—through a tête-bêche layout, Lee invites us to discover her family story, centering on her paternal grandparents. One side of the book presents photographs of her grandfather, and the other, of her grandmother. The two narratives converge in the middle with a photograph of their wedding, symbolically uniting their lives.
A remarkable publication co-edited by RM and Goma Editora, the book has two possible starting points, allowing the reader to choose their own entry. “Mr” corresponds to portraits of her grandfather, Kyung Shik Lee, and “Mrs” to portraits of her grandmother, Chung Hwan Park. These span from childhood to old age, passing through adolescence and adulthood. The images are arranged chronologically—from early black-and-white photos from the 1940s to color images from the 1980s—highlighting the evolution of photographic techniques over time.
This duality is reflected in the book’s spine, split into two shades of grey, and in the cover designs: “Mr” evokes the granular surface of silver crystals in analog black-and-white photography or photogravure, as seen under a microscope, while “Mrs” mimics the undefined forms of digital pixels, emphasizing the different methods of 20th-century photographic printing.
Across 376 pages, the photobook gathers a total of 183 images—91 portraits of each grandparent—and offers an intimate, personal view of 20th-century Korea through the photo albums of Lee’s paternal grandparents. It is a journey through time and history spanning over fifty years.
The photographs are accompanied by short texts written by renowned photography historian Horacio Fernández, drawn from conversations with the artist about her family’s story. These texts seamlessly integrate with and enrich the visual narrative.
Photo book Mr & Mrs
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The project began in 2018, when I moved to Korea and came across a pile of old photo albums that had belonged to my paternal grandparents. Although I had lived with them in the 1990s, many of these images were completely unfamiliar to me. It was an unexpected and moving discovery. My first instinct was to digitize them, but instead of scanning, I chose to photograph them. This method allowed me to preserve not only the images but also the textures, the wear, and the physical traces of time on the paper—an archive of over 1,300 photographs.
From the beginning, I knew the book had to meet several requirements: it needed to convey a clear and easily understandable message; avoid being overly sentimental; have a good design and be easy to carry; tell the story of two people beyond race or culture—creating a universal narrative that anyone could relate to, while remaining personal; pay tribute to the family album format, which has nearly disappeared with the rise of digital photography; and finally, be accessible to all, with an affordable price
At first, I wanted Swiss binding so the book could lie completely flat at 180 degrees, especially for the central wedding spread. However, due to budget constraints—since that option would significantly raise production costs—and the recommendation of the printer, we opted for perfect binding. We were advised that sewn binding, given the number of pages, could affect the spine size and complicate production.
To reduce the book’s weight, we chose the thinnest paper possible—90 grams—but with enough volume to maintain lightness. I had always envisioned the book with a matte finish.
The book went through several iterations. The original dummy consisted of two separate books inside a slipcase, and that’s the version I submitted to several contests. However, after being shortlisted and receiving feedback about the high production cost of that format, I decided to combine both books into one and eliminate the slipcase. This led to the idea of a reversible book with two covers meeting at the center.
Conceptually, this version feels stronger to me, as it reflects the union of these two people across almost their entire lives. Later on, the slipcase was reintroduced at the suggestion of Ramón Reverté, chief editor at RM, mainly for logistical reasons. Still, I’ve always liked the slipcase, and I believe it enhances the book’s object-like quality, making it even more special.
—Suwon Lee
Mr & Mrs
RM and Goma Editora, 2024
Size: 11.5 × 16.5 cm
Pages: 376
Photographs: 183
Text: Horacio Fernández
Design: Jaime Narváez
Binding: Softcover with slipcase
Printing: Liberdúplex
Languages: Spanish and English
Edition: 1,000 copies
Price: €35
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