Best of Show: Maranie Staab
Honorable Mentions: Emily Elconin and Sam Lee

Light Work is pleased to present the 2019 Newhouse Photography Annual, featuring work by photography students in S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University. This exhibition comprises more than 25 thematically diverse photographs by Newhouse’s Multimedia Photography students. The exhibition represents various approaches to photographic practice and technique and showcases the rage of images that today’s students are producing. Selected works will be on view in the Jeffrey J. Hoone Gallery at Light Work from March 18 – July 27, 2019. The opening reception is Friday, March 22, 2019, from 5-7 p.m. The exhibition and reception, with refreshments, are free and open to the public.

The exhibiting artists are Michele Abercrombie, Zack Bolton, Emily Elconin, Zach Krahmer, Jordan Larson, Sam Lee, Levingston Lewis, Gavin Liddell, Todd Michalek, Ally Moreo, Skye Schumacher, Liam Sheehan, Jes Sheldon, Maranie Staab, Doug Steinman, and Romy Weidner.

Caroline Smith, editor of photography and visuals at TOPIC, served as juror to select images for Best of Show and Honorable Mention awards. Maranie Staab took Best of Show and Honorable Mentions went to Emily Elconin and Sam Lee.

“I selected an arresting frozen moment in time that rewards the viewer’s deeper investment in the photograph,” said Smith about her Best of Show selection. “At first glance, merely a snapshot of children at play, the photo teases but ultimately withholds meaning, raising deeper questions as your eye flits from one child to the next. What kind of institution is this? What are the relationships of the children to each other? To themselves? Each child is captured in a different emotional and physical state, artfully composed in a dynamic interplay that allows the eye to wander over the tension-filled, ambiguous frame.”

Mike Davis, Newhouse Alexia Tsairis Chair for Documentary Photography and Professor of Practice, spoke of the importance of Light Work’s annual collaboration with the Newhouse School.

“It can be transformational for students to see their work on the walls of such an auspicious organization as Light Work,” said Davis. “The print as an expression of the image, placed next to other images that were held to the same standards of execution and iteration is a pure joy, a pat on the back and a lift to the spirit, no question. Newhouse and Light Work coming together to produce this exhibition is proof of practice that collaborations and voices raised simultaneously form a chorus.”

S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications students are a vital part of the photography community on the Syracuse University campus. The Light Work staff and community congratulate all the students on their accomplishments and wish them bright futures in the field of photography.

Newhouse Masters photography students learn to appreciate the rich heritage and practice of still photography as they explore and create in the quickly evolving world of multimedia storytelling. The Multimedia Photography and Design Department in the S.I. Newhouse School of Communication attracts students who are passionate about all kinds of visual storytelling: photography, videography/cinematography, design, and multimedia. Newhouse provides the means to customize studies to meet each student’s interests and needs. As creative entrepreneurs, Newhouse students typically work in journalism, advertising, fashion, and the nonprofit world—with many choosing to work across industries—and they publish their work via numerous distribution platforms from books, magazines, and newspapers to digital options, such as smartphones, tablets, the web, cable and broadcast channels, to film festivals and gallery exhibits.