Light Work Grants in Photography

Light Work is currently accepting applications for the 33rd Annual Light Work Grants in Photography competition. This year marks the thirty-third year that the Light Work Grants have been awarded, and the grant amount has doubled—from $1,000 in past years to $2,000 per recipient. Light Work began offering grants to CNY artists in 1975 to encourage the production of new photographic work in the region. Three $2,000 grants will be awarded to photographers, critics, or photo-historians that reside within an approximate 50-mile radius of Syracuse, NY. The recipients of these grants are invited to display their work in a special exhibition at the Light Work Gallery, and their work will also be reproduced in Light Work’s award-winning publication, Contact Sheet. Three judges from outside the grant region will review the applications. Their decisions are based solely on the strength of the candidate's portfolio and completed application. Individuals who received this award prior to 2003 are eligible to reapply. Full-time students are not eligible for this competition. All applications must be postmarked or delivered to Light Work by March 30, 2007. All applicants must reside in of one of the following Central New York counties: Broome, Cayuga, Chemung, Chenango, Cortland, Herkimer, Jefferson, Lewis, Madison, Oneida, Onondaga, Oswego, Schuyler, Seneca, St. Lawrence, Tioga, or Tompkins. [Image: Doug DuBois—My Sister Lise's Bedroom, 2004]

LW Grant Information

William Earle Williams: Underground Railroad Made Visible

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Light Work's exhibition Unsung Heroes: African American Soldiers in the Civil War by William Earle Williams is in its final week and will be closing on Thursday, March 15. The gallery is open all week from 10am-5pm, or by appointment. In addition, Light Work will participate in TH3 night on March 15, keeping the gallery open until 8pm.

Until the release of the motion picture Glory in 1989, it was not well known that more than 180,000 black soldiers served in the Civil War. The exhibition Unsung Heroes: African American Soldiers in the Civil War features sixty stunning black-and-white photographs by William Earle Williams. The images call attention to the sites made special through these soldiers' contributions, so that their story becomes a part of our American story. Williams has been pursuing this series for over ten years. He has photographed significant Civil War sites in the South and North, recording both historically recognizable as well as forgotten locations.

After the exhibition ends at Light Work, it will travel to the Emily Davis Gallery at the University of Akron, Ohio; Cantor-Fitzgerald Gallery at Haverford College in Haverford, Pennsylvania; Emerson Gallery at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York; and the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina.

[Image: William Earle Williams—Cabin Creek, Oklahoma, 1999}

Exhibition Details