Light Work announces the 48th annual Light Work Grants in Photography! The 2023 award recipients are Koz, Linda Moses, and Tahila Moss.  The Light Work Grants in Photography are part of Light Work’s ongoing effort to provide support and encouragement to Central New York artists working in photography within a fifty-mile radius of Syracuse.

Established in 1975, the Light Work Grants program is one of the longest-running photography fellowships in the country. Each recipient receives a $3,000 stipend and appears in Contact Sheet: The Light Work Annual. This year’s judges were Ally Caple, Kris Graves, and Kelsey Sucena.

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2023 Light Work Grants Recipients

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Koz

(Syracuse, Onondaga County)

Koz is a photographer and studio assistant for Carrie Mae Weems in Syracuse, NY. She is currently a resident at the Gear Factory, an artist-only community style living space in Syracuse. She has shown her work three times in the space in the last year, participating in The Little Room Little Show, Art Evolutions and The Alley Way Get Down. Living in a creative environment has allowed her to find the creative spark in making again as Koz took a break from making following the 2020 pandemic. She is currently preparing for her first solo show at the Stay Fresh Gallery in Syracuse in the fall.

kozjpeg.wixsite.com/my-site

Linda Moses

(Syracuse, Onondaga County)

Linda Moses (b. 1994) is an artist and educator based in Syracuse, New York. She received her BA in Art History from William & Mary and MFA in Art Photography from Syracuse University. Working in photography and video, she researches the intersecting notions of selfhood, family, truth, and memory. Her work has most recently been shown at Study Hall Gallery in Utica, NY, the Syracuse University Art Museum in Syracuse, NY, Governor’s Island, and Villa Heike in Berlin. She currently teaches Photography and Media Arts at Syracuse University and PrattMWP in Utica, NY. Her first monograph, “To Know You (Now and Then),” was published by Smog Press in May 2023.

lindamoses.com

Tahila Moss

(Spencer, Tioga County)

Tahila Moss is a multidisciplinary artist and cultural technologist whose practice works to facilitate a greater intersectional understanding of Indigenous cultures. The artist engages with ancestral systems of matriarchy and gender equality, as well as contemporary issues impacting native peoples. Predominantly creating alongside Indigenous communities of the Americas, Moss strives to reclaim bodies of knowledge that have been suppressed through colonial intervention and foster a closer connection to the natural world.

Tahila is an Indigenous Yaqui and Jewish woman who has been photographing for 30 years, living, and working throughout the Americas, Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. She worked for some years as a university lecturer of photography and is the Founding Executive Director of OJI:SDA’ Sustainable Indigenous Futures, whose vision is a world were Indigenous people are seen, heard, healthy and thriving.

Her work is currently on view at the Sharjah Biennial 15: Thinking Historically in the present and at Unrequited Leisure, Nashville.

www.tahila.net

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We are thrilled to support these inspiring artists in our community. Together they show a wide range of approaches to the medium and highlight the exceptional talent here in Central New York.