Congratulations to Guggenheim Recipients

Suzanne Opton and Osamu James Nakagawa each received the prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship Award. Suzanne received the award for her photographic series Soldier and Citizens. The work takes a closer look at the human side of the Iraq War. She started by photographing US soldiers at Fort Drum in Watertown, NY. She has since then traveled to Jordan to photograph Iraqis living there in exile.

James was awarded the Guggenheim award for his work on Banta (Cliff). His breathtaking, large-format images depict the emotionally laden rock fronts on the island of Okinawa that were the scene of war-related atrocities during WWII. He recently gave a lecture on the series at the National Conference for the Society of Photographic Education.

Both artists participated in Light Work’s Artist-in-Residence program. Suzanne participated in 2005. Her photographs in the Soldier series were first exhibited in her solo exhibition at Light Work in 2006. James came to Light Work as an Artist-in-Residence in 2002. He participated in our Fine Print Program the following year.