Light Work’s Online Benefit Auction: April 17 – May 1 on Paddle8

Raise Your Paddle and Bid! Light Work is pleased to partner with Paddle8 to launch an online benefit auction of more than 60 limited-edition, archival fine prints, and signed books. Bidding is available through our auction partner Paddle8 April 17 through May 1, 2018. Proceeds benefit Light Work and support our mission of supporting emerging and under-represented artists working in photography through residencies, publications, exhibitions, and a community-access digital lab facility.

For this unique online auction, we are offering hand-selected Fine Print and Book Collector auction lots curated by Phil Block (Deputy Director for Programs,ICP), who co-founded Light Work with Tom Bryan in 1973. All purchases include a one-year subscription to Contact Sheet. The 2018 Light Work benefit auction catalog boasts an offering of diverse works by internationally acclaimed and award-winning photographers. Bidding begins between $300 and $1,500.

The auction includes works by John Edmonds, Matt Eich, Lida Suchy, Wayne Lawrence, Zanele Muholi, Paul D’Mato, Christian Patterson, Doug DuBois, Lucas Foglia, Ann Hamilton, Leslie Hewitt, Mark Klett, Shane Lavalette, Andrea Modica, Mark Steinmetz, William Wegman, James Welling, and more!

We thank you, as always, for your continued support of the hundreds of artists that have called Light Work home over the past forty-one years. With your support, we will continue to do this valuable work for many more years to come. Thank you.

Please visit our auction to view all lots, and start your bidding!

Phil Block, a long time photographer, founded Light Work with Tom Bryan in 1973, serving as its director for the next ten years. The organization offers space to artists for studio work as well as exhibitions for aspiring photographers. Block curated more than 60 solo and group exhibitions of photography during his time with the nonprofit. We thought of ourselves as being facilitators, catalysts, not as being curators or directors, Block told FK magazine, a journal of Latvian and international photography. We were partners with the artists. Our job was to serve them, and, of course, our success was based on their success. The more we could help them to be successful in what they did, the greater our success would be. Since 1982, Block has worked with the International Center of Photography in New York City, first as associate director and now as deputy director of exhibitions and education.

Reception Recap: 2018 Newhouse Photography Annual

By Andrea Henderson

2018 Newhouse Photography Annual is on view in Light Work’s Hallway Gallery through July 27, 2018. Exhibiting student photographers include Marianne Barthélemy, Colleen Cambier, Bryan Cereijo, Haoyu Deng, Kathleen Flynn, Shweta Gulati, Chase Guttman, Shuran Huang, Joshua Ives, Evan Jenkins, Zachary Krahmer, Fiona Lenz, Tingjun Long, Claudia McCann, Todd Michalek, Moriah Ratner, Jessica Sheldon, Erika Sternard, Ashley Tucker, Austin Wallace, and Cassie Zhang.

Selfies with artists, echoes of laughter, and brief photo-explanatory conversations filled the Light Work Hallway Gallery on March 29, 2018, as students, staff, and community members took in the 2018 Newhouse Photography Annual. Light Work proudly hosted the exhibition of more than 25 stills by graduate and undergraduate students from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications Multimedia Photography and Design Department. Their work—talented in vision and accomplished in technique—covered a range of topics, including images from the Syracuse refugee community, holiday traditions, and various styles of portraiture.



Light Work partnered with Newhouse’s MPD department to encourage students to create quality work in the community and to then produce a group show in this space to exhibit their work to the general public. The last time Newhouse students showcased work in the Light Work Hallway Gallery was 11 years ago, but Lorraine Branham, Dean of the Newhouse School, said she is delighted to return to Light Work and hopes that the next such collaboration occurs well before another decade passes.



Photography graduate student Zachary Krahmer traveled to Colombia last year and captured photos of the women and men fighting in the civil war there and the aftermath of the battles. He chose to use wet plate photo processing to create images that document conflict resolution groups within Colombia. Krahmer shot more than 80 stills, but for the Light Work exhibition he chose two from his series, Santa Lucia, Ituango Municipality, Colombia/Maritza, Member of the 18th Front of FARC, Colombia, days before demobilization.



For the Newhouse Photography Annual display, students chose to shoot a wide variety of subjects. Shuran Huang said the community always inspires her to produce photos that reflect the souls of societies and the people who add life to common activities. This explains her affinity with Collin’s Barber and Beauty Shop, a three-generation African-American salon that has serviced the Syracuse community for half a century.

A large crowd including faculty and local photographers attended and expressed enthusiasm about the students’ work. And so did Dean Branham, who walked through the exhibit greeting students with excitement and satisfaction.



She said the photographs, “show us how many great possibilities there are for collaboration and what great opportunities there are for our students. And I hope going forward that we will make the most out of these kinds of opportunities. I’m so proud of the work that they have done here.”

During the formal part of the reception, Light Work director Shane Lavalette acknowledged the Newhouse students’ work and expressed his gratitude for their participation. “This really shows the diversity of not only photography now, but of visual storytelling, and I’m excited to follow the work of all the students.”



To see all the images, visit the Hallway Gallery at Light Work in the Menschel Media Center on Waverly Avenue. The 2018 Newhouse Photography Annual exhibition will be up until July 27, 2018.