Each year Light Work invites 12-15 artists to participate in its residency program, including one artist co-sponsored by Autograph ABP. Artists selected for the residency program are invited to live in Syracuse for one month. They receive a $4,000 stipend, an apartment to stay in, private darkroom, and 24-hour access to our facility. Our newly renovated lab facility can accommodate just about any black and white process from alternative processes to mural printing. Our color facility includes a Hope 32" color processor. Our color managed digital imaging lab features Macintosh workstations equipped with flatbed & film scanners. Output includes three 44" Epson seven-color printers (9600 and 9800) that can render continuous gray-scale and color prints onto a broad variety of materials. Artists use Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, and Macromedia Director Studio, Flash, Dreamweaver, Adobe Premiere, Apple Final Cut Pro, DVD Studio Pro software packages, iLife, and more.
Participants in the residency program are expected to use their month to pursue their own projects: photographing in the area, printing for a specific project or book, etc. Artists are not obligated to teach at our facility, though we hope that the artists are friendly and accessible to local artists. Work produced by the Artists-in-Residence will also be published in Light Work's publication Contact Sheet.
While there is no formal deadline, we complete reviews of portfolios every two or three months. The next review process is scheduled to take place in April 2009. We are currently scheduling a couple residencies for 2009; most of the 2009 residencies have already been announced on our blog.
All artists working in photography and related media are eligible to apply to Light Work's Artist-in-Residence program. There is no application form or deadline. Artists should submit the following:
- letter of intent, describing plans for residency
- current resume, including exhibition record
- artist statement
- around twenty images (slides, proof prints, or disk) of your most recent work or current project, plus any supporting material you feel would be appropriate in evaluating your application
- postage for the return of materials, or note to discard material after review process (international artists can include credit card information for return postage)
If you are submitting individual image files, please size the images at 2MB or less per image. Images can be sent as Tiff or JPEG files. PDF or Powerpoint presentations are equally acceptable and may exceed the 2MB file size. If possible please also send a printout of thumbnails or one or two proof prints. Please do not send books or brochures unless you are providing adequate return postage.
While we do not want to discourage anyone from applying, we are primarily interested in artists who are seriously involved with the medium of photography, and who clearly understand their intentions as an artist.