Marie Smith
June 2025
Marie Smith’s residency at Light Work is supported by Autograph London, a partnership with Light Work that dates from 1996.
Marie Smith (she/they) is a neurodivergent visual artist and writer born, living, and working in London. Smith graduated in 2017 with an MA in history in art with photography at Birkbeck, University of London. Being a neurodivergent person with dyspraxia and anxiety has informed how they navigate the world. Smith’s practice incorporates audio, digital, and analog mediums alongside text as a form of visual language that addresses identity, the body, nature, sustainability, mental health, and well-being.
Ben Gest
August 2005
Ben Gest’s work gives a new meaning to the expression “more than meets the eye.” His work is as contemplative and quiet, as it is restless and emotionally charged. Gest modestly describes his work as “narratives of personal and simple everyday activities.” But he goes through extensive steps to create these narratives from multiple separate photographs. The end results are large scale photographs that are alluring from a distance and unexpectedly detailed upon closer examination.
Since arriving at Light Work, he has rarely stepped away from his computer. The first images are now rolling off the Light Work inkjet printers. Each is the result of countless hours spent on compilating many different images to create these believable yet artificially created photographs. Gest considers these images “an outgrowth of his interest in photography’s potential to tell the story of human life while considering its ability to create objective truth.”
Ben Gest was born in Caldwell, NJ. He earned a BA from Rutgers University and an MFA in photography from Columbia College, Chicago. Gest has exhibited nationally and institutions such as The Art Institute of Chicago, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, and the Museum of Contemporary Photography. Gest currently works as an Adjunct Professor at Columbia College, Chicago.
