Lola Flash
August 2008

Lola Flash plans to use her residency to refine scans and prints of her series [sur]passing. She also foresees shooting images towards two new bodies of work, entitled epicene and quartet. All three series reflect Flash's ongoing obsession with boundaries and the physical and ideological areas that exist concerning those boundaries. Begun in 2002, [sur]passing examines how skin color impacts black identity both in real life and in front of the camera. With the portraits in epicene, Flash depicts a mosaic of subjects who have challenged societal confines, including those of race, class, and gender. Photographed in various cities in the United States and abroad, quartet looks at the interstitial places that comprise these cities and define the lives of their inhabitants.

Flash was born in the United States and is of African and Native American heritage. She spent ten years in London, where she regularly exhibited her work and also attained her MA. A classic Flash photograph, Stay Afloat, Use a Rubber, is part of London's Victoria and Albert Museum collection. She is now based in New York where she continues to teach and create. Read more about Flash and her work at www.lolaflash.com.

Oscar Palacio
August 2008

Oscar Palacio's residency will focus on work from the series History Re-Visited. In these images, Palacio reveals the beautiful and enigmatic disparity that often exists between the monumental historical events that make a site important and what we actually find there. With this series, Palacio explores the nature of public space and how the roles of both architecture and photography shape and create experience. During his time at Light Work, Palacio will scan and make prints of some of the images he has made in historic sites such as Plymouth and Salem, MA, and Gettysburg, PA, among others. He also plans to research and photograph sites around Syracuse that played a part in the Underground Railroad.

Palacio was born in Medellin, Columbia. He holds a BA in Architecture from the University of Miami, Florida, and an MFA in Photography from Massachusetts College of Art, Boston. In addition to the exhibition Are We There Yet at the Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago, from July 20-September 28, 2008, Palacio's work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally; his photographs are included in the collections of the Center for Creative Photography, Tucson, AR; the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University; the Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, MA; and the Universidad de Antioquia, Medellin, Columbia, among other institutions. Visit www.oscarpalacio.net for more information.

Light Work's Artist-in-Residence Program

Since 1976 nearly 300 artists have participated in Light Work's Artist-in-Residence program. Each year Light Work invites 12-15 artists to participate in this program. During their month-long residencies each artist is given the opportunity to create new work at our studio facility in the Robert B. Menschel Media Center at Syracuse University. Each Artist-in-Residence donates a few examples of their work to Light Work's permanent collection. The Light Work collection currently includes over 2,400 images.

How to apply to the Artist-in-Residence program