John Chervinsky (1961-2015)

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“I am fascinated by the concept of time. I can measure it, account for it in an experiment in the lab, and live my life in it, but I still don’t know what it is, exactly.”

— John Chervinsky

We are saddened to share the news of the passing of photographer and friend John Chervinsky. John passed in the afternoon on Monday, December 21, 2015 at his home in Somerville, MA.

John Chervinsky was a Light Work Artist-in-Residence in October 2012. During his month in Syracuse, he produced a handmade version of his book An Experiment in Perspective. John was a self taught photographer and an engineer working in the field of applied physics, most recently at Harvard’s Rowland Institute for Science, originally founded by Polaroid’s Edwin H. Land. John’s creativity and inventiveness came through in his photographic work, and we had the great pleasure of working closely with him, through which we discovered what a humble, generous, and truly brilliant person he was.

During his career, John exhibited his photographs nationally at many venues, including solo exhibitions at The Griffin Museum of Photography, Blue Sky Gallery, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in conjunction with the Photographic Resource Center, Wallspace Gallery, Cordon Potts Gallery, and Photo-eye Project Gallery. His work is included in many collections, including Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX; Portland Museum of Art, Portland, OR; List Visual Art Center Collection at MIT, Cambridge, MA; and Light Work, Syracuse, NY.

The Griffin Museum of Photography in Winchester, MA has established The John Chervinsky Emerging Photographer Scholarship. The scholarship seeks to recognize, encourage and reward photographers with the potential to create a body of work and sustain solo exhibition. Awarded annually, the Scholarship provides recipients with a monetary award, tuition-free enrollment in Photography Atelier, exhibition of their work at the Griffin Museum of Photography, and a volume from John’s personal library of photography books. The Scholarship seeks to provide a watershed moment in the professional lives of emerging photographers, providing them with the support and encouragement necessary to develop, articulate and grow their own vision for photography.

Please consider making a contribution to the fund. In doing so, you will honor John’s memory by making it possible for others to continue his work of tirelessly questioning the world around us.

We would like to extend our thoughts to John’s wife, Kirsten, and all of our colleagues who knew John’s gentile spirit, intelligence, and creativity.

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Image: Flowers and Painting on Door, 2010

View Light Work’s Fine Print Program print by John Chervinsky here.
Browse John Chervinsky’s recent work on his blog or website.

Light Work Receives 2016 NEA Art Works Grant

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In its first 50 years, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) awarded more than $5 billion in grants to recipients in every state and U.S. jurisdiction, the only arts funder in the nation to do so. Today, the NEA announced awards totaling more than $27.6 million in its first funding round of fiscal year 2016, including an Art Works award of $50,000 to Light Work to support Light Work’s Artist-in-Residence Program and the production of Contact Sheet: The Light Work Annual.

The Art Works category supports the creation of work and presentation of both new and existing work, lifelong learning in the arts, and public engagement with the arts through 13 arts disciplines or fields. NEA Chairman Jane Chu said, “The arts are part of our everyday lives – no matter who you are or where you live – they have the power to transform individuals, spark economic vibrancy in communities, and transcend the boundaries across diverse sectors of society. Supporting projects like the one from Light Work offers more opportunities to engage in the arts every day.”

Light Work’s director Shane Lavalette commented, “We are absolutely thrilled to receive news of the award, and are very grateful to the NEA for their continued support of our programs. We look forward to another excellent year of supporting some of today’s most exciting image-makers.”

Every year Light Work invites between twelve and fifteen artists to come to Syracuse to devote one month to creative projects. Over 400 artists have participated in Light Work’s Artist-in-Residence Program, and many of them have gone on to achieve international acclaim. The residency includes a $5,000 stipend, a furnished artist apartment, 24-hour access to our state-of-the-art facilities, and generous staff support. Work by each Artist-in-Residence is published in a special edition of Contact Sheet: The Light Work Annual along with an essay commissioned by Light Work.

To join the Twitter conversation about this announcement, please use #NEAFall15. For more information on projects included in the NEA grant announcement, go to www.arts.gov.

2016 Light Work Artists-in-Residence

 

To learn more about the 2016 Artists-in-Residence, read our announcement on the Light Work Blog.

To become a supporter of Light Work yourself, consider making a contribution by beginning or renewing your subscription. We encourage you to help us achieve our goal of matching the NEA’s generous support. Contribute today and get something back in return. Browse limited-edition prints, signed books, and Contact Sheet at www.lightwork.org/shop

All subscriptions will assure that you receive the NEA-supported issue of Contact Sheet: The Light Work Annual 2016 next summer. Preview spreads from Contact Sheet 182: Light Work Annual 2015 online here.

Introducing Light Work’s 2016 Subscription Program

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Great Cause / Great Art

We’re pleased to introduce our 2016 Subscription Program, offering you a variety of ways to grow your photography collection while supporting Light Work’s mission. This year, the subscription program features prints by Zanele Muholi from the Master Print Edition; prints by Paul D’Amato, Gregory Halpern, and Bill McDowell from the Fine Print Program; signed copies of My Last Day at Seventeen by Doug DuBois; and Contact Sheet subscriptions. All items are available individually, or together as part of the 2016 Benefactors Offer.

Scroll down for new prints and books, or explore the Light Work Shop.

2016BenefactorsOffer

2016 Benefactors Offer
Zanele Muholi, Paul D’Amato, Gregory Halpern, Bill McDowell, Doug DuBois + Contact Sheet

The Benefactor Offer represents an excellent way to further your collection, while supporting Light Work’s mission. Contributors of $1,500 will receive Zanele Muholi’s image from the Master Print Edition, all three prints in our Fine Print Program (Paul D’Amato, Gregory Halpern, and Bill McDowell), and a signed copy of My Last Day at Seventeen by Doug DuBois. In total, a $2,015 value! By participating in this category you will save on the cost of the prints and book, and receive a one-year subscription to Contact Sheet.

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Zanele Muholi
Lerato Dumse, Syracuse, New York, 2015
Archival inkjet print, 14 x 9.66″ on 15 x 11″ paper
Shipped in a 20 x 16″ mat
Edition of 50, signed and numbered by the artist
$1000
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Zanele Muholi was born in Umlazi, Durban, and currently lives in Johannesburg, South Africa. She co-founded the Forum for Empowerment of Women as well as Inkanyiso, a forum for queer and visual activist media. Muholi’s self-proclaimed mission is “to re-write a black queer and trans visual history of South Africa for the world to know of our resistance and existence at the height of hate crimes in SA and beyond.” This striking and intimate portrait of her long-time collaborator Lerato Dumse was made during her Light Work residency. Muholi studied at the Market Photo Workshop in Newtown, Johannesburg, and completed an MFA at Ryerson University, Toronto, in 2009. She has won numerous awards including the Ryerson Alumni Achievement Award; a Prince Claus Award; and the Casa Africa award for best female photographer. Her Faces and Phases series has been shown at Documenta 13, the South African Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, the São Paulo Biennale, Brooklyn Museum, among other venues. She was shortlisted for the 2015 Deutsche Börse Photography Prize for her publication Faces and Phases: 2006-14 (Steidl/The Walther Collection, 2014). Muholi participated in Light Work’s Artist-in-Residence Program in August 2015.

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Paul D’Amato
Girl in Rain, Chicago, 1991
Archival inkjet print, 11 x 13.65″ on 14 x 16.65″ paper
Shipped in a 16 x 20″ mat
Edition of 50, signed and numbered by the artist
$300
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Paul D’Amato was raised in Boston during the civil rights movement, which shaped his interest in making work about class, community and the simple drama of everyday life. After completing his MFA at Yale University, he moved to Chicago, and in 1988 began to photograph the Mexican communities on the south side of the city in the Pilsen neighborhood. D’Amato’s photographs are immersive and sensitive; the relationships he built over the years are immediately apparent in the uninhibited expressions of his subjects. “Kids finding a way to cool down during a hot summer in a neighborhood composed completely of bricks, asphalt, and concrete is common,” explains D’Amato about this photograph, one of his most iconic images. “It’s just that some moments and gestures can appear surprisingly profound.” D’Amato was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1994, The Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship to Bellagio, Italy in 1998, and the Pollock-Krasner Foundation Fellowship in 2002. His monographs include Barrio: Photographs from Chicago’s Pilsen and Little Village (University of Chicago Press, 2006) and more recently We Shall (DePaul Art Museum, 2013). D’Amato participated in Light Work’s Artist-in-Residence Program in January 2016.

fire on ground 001

Gregory Halpern
Untitled, 2014
Archival inkjet print, 12 x 9.6″ on 14 x 11″ paper
Shipped in a 18 x 14″ mat
Edition of 50, signed and numbered by the artist
$300
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Gregory Halpern’s beautiful and eerie photograph of a California fire captures an otherworldly landscape. “Watching the dry brush ignite, it seemed as if nothing would stop the flames,” Halpern recounts. “The scale was larger than anything I had ever seen, almost mythical.” Halpern has published three books of photographs, including A (J&L Books, 2011), Omaha Sketchbook (J&L Books, 2009), and Harvard Works Because We Do (Quantuck Lane, 2003). He is the editor, along with Jason Fulford, of The Photographer’s Playbook: Over 250 Assignments and Ideas (Aperture, 2014). Most recently he released East of the Sun, West of the Moon (Études Books, 2015), a collaborative book with Ahndraya Parlato. Halpern holds a BA in History and Literature from Harvard University and an MFA from California College of the Arts, an currently teaches photography at Rochester Institute of Technology. In 2014, he received a fellowship from Guggenheim Foundation. He is now working on a book of photographs from California (forthcoming from J&L Books). Halpern participated in Light Work’s Artist-in-Residence Program in August 2014.

BillMcDowell_print_canvas

Bill McDowell
Detail of Mr. Tronson, Farmer Near Wheelock, ND, 1936 (Russell Lee) / Detail of Untitled, Alabama, 1936 (Walker Evans), 2015
Archival inkjet print, 12.5 x 7.5″ on 11 x 17″ paper
Shipped unmatted, diptych of images as single print
Edition of 50, signed and numbered by the artist
$300
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Bill McDowell is a photographer living in Plattsburgh, New York. This diptych of two images is from his project Ground, a series of photographs taken from the Farm Security Administration (FSA) archive of “killed” negatives. These negatives that had been damaged with a hole punch by the FSA staff in the 1930s. McDowell’s sequence of photographs relates to land and agriculture, and is mediated by the manner in which the killed negative’s black hole abstracts subject, space, and time. With this, he creates a dense narrative connecting contemporary and Great Depression Americas. McDowell is the 2013 recipient of the Peter S. Reed Foundation Grant, and has received the Aaron Siskind Individual Photographer’s Fellowship, the New York Foundation on the Arts Photography Fellowship, as well as many other artist grants. McDowell’s photographs are represented in collections at the Yale University Art Gallery, the George Eastman Museum, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, among others. He is a professor in the Department of Art and Art History at the University of Vermont. McDowell participated in Light Work’s Artist-in-Residence Program in 1995.

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2016 Book Collectors Offer
My Last Day at Seventeen (SIGNED)
Doug DuBois

Take advantage of the 2016 Book Collectors Offer. Order a signed copy of My Last Day at Seventeen by Doug DuBois and you will also receive a subscription to Contact Sheet (a $115 value) for only $75!

Light Work is pleased to offer signed copies of the ambitious second monograph by Doug DuBois, My Last Day at Seventeen. What began as a month-long residency in 2009 grew into a five-year project about youth, Ireland, and an exceptional group of young people from a few blocks of a housing estate in Russell Heights. The resulting photographs are an exploration into the promise and adventure of childhood with an eye toward its fragility and inevitable loss. Combining portraits, spontaneous encounters, and collaborative performances, the images of My Last Day at Seventeen exist in a delicate balance between documentary and fiction. A powerful follow-up to DuBois’ acclaimed first book, All the Days and Nights, this project provides an incisive examination of the uncertainties of growing up in Ireland today, while highlighting the unique relationship sustained between artist and subject.

LightWork_Annual_182_Cover_2015Benefactors

Contact Sheet Subscription
One Year, Including Five Printed Issues

Subscribe to Contact Sheet and receive five printed issues of one of the longest-running art photography publications in the world. Showcasing contemporary photographers since 1977, Contact Sheet features artists who have participated in Light Work’s Artist-in-Residence and exhibition programs, alongside writing by some of the leading voices in the industry.

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Explore limited-edition prints and signed books from previous years in the Light Work Shop.

Light Work Receives Grant from The Gifford Foundation to Support Launch of New Online Collection

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Light Work is pleased to announce that we have been awarded a $10,000 grant from The Gifford Foundation. With support from this grant, we will create high-resolution images for over 4,000 prints and objects in The Light Work Collection and launch a new online platform for viewing and researching the archive. Our aim is to make this important collection even more accessible to our local community as well as a broader audience of curators, scholars, and photography lovers around the globe.

The Gifford Foundation was established in 1954 as a private foundation serving Syracuse and the surrounding Central New York community. The Foundation supports individuals and organizations through grants and initiatives that build on community assets and promote positive change in the community. For further information visit the website at www.giffordfoundation.org.

Announcing the 2016 Light Work Artists-in-Residence

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Every year Light Work invites between twelve and fifteen artists to come to Syracuse to devote one month to creative projects. Over 400 artists have participated in Light Work’s Artist-in-Residence Program, and many of them have gone on to achieve international acclaim.

The residency includes a $5,000 stipend, a furnished artist apartment, 24-hour access to our state-of-the-art facilities, and generous staff support. Work by each Artist-in-Residence is published in a special edition of Contact Sheet: The Light Work Annual along with an essay commissioned by Light Work. Work by former Artists-in-Residence is also part of the Light Work Collection.

We are pleased to announce the 2016 Light Work Artists-in-Residence!

Morgan Ashcom

Paul D’Amato

Eyakem Gulilat

John Mann

Marcia Michael

Regine Petersen

Takahiro Kaneyama

Richard Rothman

Christina Seely

Pacifico Silano

Mila Teshaieva

Suné Woods

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See past Artists-in-Residence at www.lightwork.org/air
Applications are now open for 2017. Apply at lightwork.slideroom.com

Find Light Work at NY Art Book Fair and VSW Pub Fair 2015

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Printed Matter’s NY Art Book Fair 2015
MoMA PS1
22-25 Jackson Ave, Long Island City, NY 11101
September 18-20, 2015

Find Light Work at Booth V02!

Light Work is pleased to participate in this year’s NY Art Book Fair.

Come visit our table for a selection of SIGNED photobooks and collectible, limited-edition prints by artists. We’ll have a few special books and prints for sale at the fair, which are not available otherwise.

If you visit us, mention the date “1973” (the year we started supporting artists!) and we’ll give you a 10% discount on any purchase.

As a perk of the fair, all signed book and print purchases will include a complimentary one-year subscription to our publication Contact Sheet.

VSW_PubFair_2015

VSW Pub Fair
Visual Studies Workshop
31 Prince St, Rochester, NY 14607
September 26, 2015 from 12-6pm

Light Work is also happy to participate in this year’s VSW Pub Fair.

The third annual Pub Fair will bring together book artists, photographers, independent publishers, and DIYers to exhibit their work in a unique market showcasing the gamut of what publishing can be. Artist’s books, photobookworks, magazines, zines, digital publishing as well as resources for all of these will be on hand to peruse and purchase.

Did we mention food trucks on the lawn and beer inside? See you there.

Lecture and Panel Discussion in Conjunction with Rotimi Fani-Kayode (1955-1989)

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Light Work is pleased to announce a lecture and panel discussion in conjunction with the exhibition of Rotimi Fani-Kayode (1955-1989).

Join us on Thursday, September 17th — the exhibition reception begins at 5:00pm in the Kathleen O. Ellis Gallery and panel/lecture begins at 6:15pm in Watson Theater at Light Work, Robert B. Menschel Media Center, 316 Waverly Avenue, Syracuse, NY.

Rotimi Fani-Kayode was a Nigerian-born photographer, who moved to England at the age of twelve to escape the Nigerian Civil War. Through his photography he explored the tensions created by sexuality, race and culture. The lecture/panel will be presented and moderated by M. Neelika Jayawardane, and includes guest speakers Remi Onabanjo, Elliot Ross, and Derica Shields.

M. Neelika Jayawardane is associate professor of English at the State University of New York-Oswego, and an Honorary Research Associate at the Centre for Indian Studies in Africa (CISA), University of the Witwatersrand (South Africa). She is a senior editor and contributor to the online magazine, Africa is a Country. Jayawardane was born in Sri Lanka, grew up in the Copperbelt Province in Zambia, and completed her university education in the United States. Her academic publications focus on the nexus between South African literature, photography, and the transnational/transhistorical implications of colonialism and apartheid on the body.

Remi Onabanjo is a Nigerian-born curator and art critic. She holds an undergraduate degree from Columbia University, and is pursuing an MPhil in Visual, Material and Museum Anthropology at Oxford University. Raised in South Africa, Tanzania and the USA, she has assisted with exhibitions at the Museum of African Design (Johannesburg, South Africa) and with No Longer Empty (New York City, USA), curated group exhibitions in New York City, and is currently assisting with exhibitions at The Walther Collection and The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Her research interests are concerned with the photographic archive, the legacies of African art objects in museum collections, and gender and sexuality in contemporary art of Africa and the African diaspora.

Elliot Ross is a PhD candidate in English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University, and holds graduate degrees from the University of Cambridge and Columbia University. He was Fulbright-Alistair Cooke Scholar for 2010, and his writing on politics, culture and literature has appeared in publications such as The Guardian, Al Jazeera, The Washington Post, Guernica and The London Review of Books. He is senior editor at Africa is a Country, a web magazine of African political and cultural affairs. Elliot’s current research examines colonial reparations claims and questions of narrative.

Derica Shields is a writer, editor, and film curator from London who lives in New York. Her research interests include black diasporic literature, visual art, film, and futurisms. In 2013, she co-founded The Future Weird, a screening series where she brings together experimental films by black and brown directors with archival clips to curate screenings-cum-visual essays. At London’s 2014 Frieze Art Fair, Derica gave a talk for Rhizome and the ICA on the black woman cyborg in 1990s music videos, an idea which she is currently expanding for Tank Magazine, and Girls Like Us. She is a contributing editor at The New Inquiry and a story editor at Rookie Mag, although her favourite job as an independent researcher for a feature film about black British migrants in 1950s and ’60s London. She holds a degree in English from Cambridge University, and an MA in Africana Studies from Cornell.

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This event is free and open to the public. Presented in partnership with Autograph ABP, London.

“Building a Sustainable Practice” with Creative Capital’s Ruby Lerner

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The Syracuse Symposium, whose theme this year is “Networks,” gets underway with a presentation by one of the nation’s premier arts leaders.

Ruby Lerner, president and executive director of Manhattan-based Creative Capital, will present Building a Sustainable Practice on Thursday, Sept. 10, at 6:30 p.m. in Watson Theatre of the Robert B. Menschel Media Center.

Her lecture is free and open to the public. The event is sponsored by Light Work, as well as the School of Art and the Department of Transmedia, both in the College of Visual and Performing Arts.

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“Ruby Lerner exemplifies the broad relevance of networks-specifically, their ability to offer new opportunities for collective action, artistic collaboration and alternative ways of thinking,” says Vivian May, director of the Humanities Center and associate professor of women’s and gender studies. “Her innovative work in cultural philanthropy has virtually re-defined the arts funding model.”

Lerner founded Creative Capital in 1999, largely in response to the National Endowment for the Arts’ shrinking support for individual arts. Since then, her organization has committed $35 million in financial and advisory support to 465 projects, representing some 580 artists, while its Professional Development Program has reached nearly 10,000 artists in over 400 communities.

Lerner is expected to discuss her signature four-pronged approach to arts funding: support the project, support the individual, build community and engage the public.

“Creative Capital began as an experiment to see how artists could benefit from the kind of opportunities afforded to entrepreneurs in other sectors,” she says. “Our pioneering system of supporting artists is inspired by the venture capital principles of building a long-term relationship with a project, providing funding at strategic moments and surrounding the project with critical resources, counsel and advisory services.”

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For more information, call the Syracuse University Humanities Center
at 315-443-7192 or visit www.syracusehumanities.org

Tony Gleaton (1948-2015)

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It is with heavy hearts that we share the news of the passing of photographer Tony Gleaton. Tony passed peacefully in his sleep on August 14, 2015.

Tony was a Light Work Artist-in-Residence in 1991, and since then his work has been featured in many of our exhibitions and publications. He returned to Syracuse countless times to continue working through his projects in the lab and often spoke of the ways in which his time at Light Work changed his career and life. It was our honor to work with Tony over the years and he will be missed.

We dedicate Contact Sheet 182: Light Work Annual 2015 to our dear friend Tony Gleaton, whose life and work is a testament to courage, humor, and generosity.

The Department of Art and Art History, College of Fine Arts at University of New Mexico has established the Tony Gleaton Scholarship for their MFA in Photography program. It will support MFA students in photography as they document and reimagine perceptions of racial and cultural identity. We invite you to join in making a tribute to Tony Gleaton and his work documenting the African legacy in the Americas by contributing to the Tony Gleaton Scholarship fund.

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Image: Julian, San Diego County, California (from The Black Route West), 2012

Snow Monkey: A Letter from David Levi Strauss to George Gittoes

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2013 Light Work AIR George Gittoes recently shared a preview link for his upcoming project Snow Monkey, a film that looks at the politics, culture, and society of Afghanistan through the stories of ice cream boys wandering wandering the streets of Jalalabad. Poet, essayist, art and cultural critic David Levi Strauss wrote George a letter in response to his first viewing of the film. He has kindly agreed to allow us to publish the letter in support of the movie, which premieres today at the Melbourne International Film Festival in Australia.

August 2, 2015 at 4:14:06 AM EDT

Dear George,

It’s 4 o’clock in the morning here, and I’ve just watched your Snow Monkey. Once I started it, I couldn’t stop. It’s a powerful film, and says more about what’s happened and is happening in Afghanistan than a hundred other docs or news reports put together.

To me, the structure is quite classical—a series of linked stories or songs—punctuated, devastatingly, by the inhuman sight and infernal sound of helicopters and drones. The allegory is stronger for being less didactic. Lives being lived. And suddenly blasted apart.

The old Kuchi shaman. Three boys with three turkeys for Eid. The tears of the 21-year-old heroin addict. The raucous parade of “The Gangs of Jalalabad.”

I laughed a lot, it’s true, but at the end of the film, I cried, and, in the end, it wasn’t for Shazia and Steel (the greatest screen couple since Bogart and Bacall), or sweet Irfan and his father, or Gul Mina (the reigning daimon of the film), all of whom are portrayed here by you like Rilke’s lions, “all unaware, in being magnificent, of any weakness,” but for everyone outside the film, locked in this madness.

Thank you for making this beautiful film, George. I’ll do everything I can to get people to see it in the U.S.

Love,
David [Levi Strauss]

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Find more information about Snow Monkey here.

Light Work Receives Grant from The Andy Warhol Foundation

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Light Work is pleased to announce that we have been awarded a $100,000 grant from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. The award will be distributed over two years, and contribute to the success of Light Work’s renowned residency and exhibition programs offering support and visibility to emerging and under-recognized artists working in photography and image-based media.

In total, 48 organizations will receive over $3.7 million in support of scholarly exhibitions, publications, and visual arts programming, including artist residencies and new commissions. Light Work would like to extend our congratulations to all of the other organizations making great contributions in our field.

For more on the selected organizations and projects receiving funding read the online announcement and browse the the Awarded Grants page.

Light Work Lab Renovation

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From June 15 through July 15, 2015, Light Work Lab is undergoing renovation. Below is a letter from Light Work Lab Manager Walker Blackwell addressing many exciting changes, limited space closings during the renovation, and more.

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Dear Light Work Lab Community,

I’m writing you with some exciting news! Light Work Lab is undergoing a much anticipated renovation. Following this, our little lab founded over 40 years ago and housed at Syracuse University will continue as the best community-access lab in the world.

Renovations begin on June 15, 2015 with an anticipated completion date of July 15, 2015. Please see below for more details, including information on room closings during the month-long renovation. Be sure to follow our Facebook and Twitter streams for updates on the progress of the renovation and more.

Q: What does this renovation mean long term?

A: Tons. Printing and scanning workflows get streamlined, physical workspace gets re-arranged, upgraded lighting throughout, new computers and printers, more magnetic-wall space, flat-file storage for the community, all lab furniture goes mobile to allow for expanded programming, and so much more. We’ll post all these new amazing things that members have access to at lightwork.org/lab over the next month.

After a long period of consideration and thought we’ll be decommissioning the developing labs and large darkroom for many reasons that we explain below. Fear not! The advanced darkroom will always exist for community use, as well as sinks in multiple locations. We’re confident this is the right decision and are happy to answer any questions you might have.

(Too much to handle? Walker’s direct google voice cellphone number is 802.821.4451 if this causes you panic and you need to ask questions immediately.)

Q: What does this mean in the short term (now through July 15)?

A: If you have a backlog of B&W film to develop and print analogue, now is the time to get rolling! Have you been waiting for a reason to organize a group photogram party? This is your opportunity. Come in and say your goodbyes to the large darkroom before June 10th. After renovation our advanced darkroom will be open for business (you can reserve it now by calling 315.443.1300).

From June 15 to July 15 the large workroom (where cutting tables are currently located), lighting studio, and darkrooms will be closed. During the renovation all lockers will be converted to roller lockers. We’ll box the locker contents, number the boxes, and make them fully accessible to their owners for that month of construction.

The large cutting tables are temporarily moving to the hallway near the open lab, so they will still be accessible (but cozy). Scanners are moving to the open lab, Artist-in-Residence studios, and service lab. The renovation will not impact people working digitally very much, though getting around during the renovation is going to be a bit tight.

Q: Why are you taking away the developing lab and large darkroom?

A: This decision was difficult and not made lightly. The advanced darkroom is not going anywhere, and will maintain full functionality forever. We’ll still offer Intro to the Dark Arts sessions and will be maintaining sinks in our larger project spaces. We will always be committed to film photography. The only difference is now darkroom access requires a reservation by calling 315.443.1300. This is the same process currently in place for the lighting studio.

Darkroom usage has dropped over the past several years and that space can be used in better ways. We attribute this to a few reasons: silver film/paper is now very expensive, consumables are hard to find in this area (MQ Camera closing, etc), and inkjet printers are now very high quality. And finally, our digital workflow is advanced enough to support a true transition now that we have a Piezography K7 monochrome print system (developed in-house, by the way).

We are very excited to usher Light Work into a new era of improved productivity, service, and technical and creative excellence. We have a small space for what we do, and we want to use every square foot.

Q: What is physically changing at Light Work? Will I recognize the place?

A: Yes! We’re not tearing out that many walls, but we are dramatically reorganizing our space to streamline workflow. It’s a fun project. The equipment and where people work is changing.

We are also really excited about upgrading the lighting in the lab. We are installing gallery/museum spec 5000k LED bulbs with special violet phosphors, 60 degree beam spreader lenses, and 4200k warming filters. The light will be nothing but revolutionary. All fluorescents will be kept off. Yay!

Q: What else can we look forward to with the renovation?

A: Following construction, we plan on hosting Saturday digital intro classes in the open lab in addition to our ongoing Sessions. Printing, cutting, and other production related activities will take place in the new, large production room. This switch will open up the space for education and help us support members by providing better access to front-desk and service staff. This is a huge improvement from our current layout where members work almost 80 feet away from the nearest staff member who can help them. With printers, gallery lights, magnet walls, cutters, and flat-files closer to each other, everything is easier to do. New flat-files will facilitate large-format print storage for the community. From scanning to storage, Light Work Lab has you covered.

We are thrilled about the expanded potential for serving as an improved site for community art events, happenings, and more in Syracuse. The space will be accessible and lit well-enough for any member to have a studio or curatorial visit, or to host a critique group, etc. Because lab furniture will be on wheels, all tables/lockers/printers will be able to roll out at a moment’s notice making space for lectures, experimental workshops, portfolio reviews, movie nights, art performances, and more.

We at Light Work Lab are incredibly excited for this renovation and the potential it brings for the art community in Syracuse. We look forward to seeing more of you soon!

All the best,
Walker Blackwell
Manager, Light Work Lab