With great pleasure, Light Work presents the 2025 BFA Art Photography Annual. This exhibition features work by seniors from the Art Photography program in the Film and Media Arts Department at the College of Visual and Performing Arts at Syracuse University. The exhibiting artists are Maxine Brackbill, Charles Lavion, Kelsey Quinn Leary, Lili Moreno Martel, Shawn McCauley, and Hazel Wagner.

“Each spring, seniors in the art photography program have the opportunity to exhibit a selection of images from their senior thesis projects at Light Work. The senior thesis is a yearlong, in-depth photographic exploration of a subject chosen by each student. The subjects of these projects are wide ranging; from very personal explorations of family and selfhood to sharp and humorous experiments playing with the boundaries of fashion and studio photography. Students choose, edit, and print the images in collaboration and with the assistance of Light Work’s curatorial staff and master printers. The BFA Art Photography Annual is not only the first exhibition for many of the students in the Art Photography program, but also an important learning opportunity for them. In addition to giving students the space to imagine how the images they create might exist beyond the walls of the university, the Art Photography Annual introduces their work to their peers, the local community, and the renowned curators and critics who jury the exhibition.”

—Laura Heyman, Associate Professor, Art Photography

Bruno Ceschel (founder of Self Publish Be Happy) served as juror and selected Maxine Brackbill’s images for Best in Show:

“Maxine Brackbill’s photographs address identity through lenses of gender, race, and familial contexts, presenting biographies that are deeply personal yet universally relevant. These narratives emerge at a time when there is a growing visibility for diverse perspectives, but also an environment that feels increasingly hostile. One particularly striking image of Maxine standing in water, confronting the viewer with a gaze that asserts her new body and new life, feels both vulnerable and defiant.”