Every semester, artists from around the country apply for the Light Work grant. The $3,000 grant is given to photographers to expand on their current projects and gain exposure among local curators and gallery owners.

Founded in 1973, Light Work is a nonprofit located in Watson Hall, and is dedicated to helping photographers get their next big break. Associate director Mary Lee Hodgens said it “helps emerging and under recognized artists” and is a “transformative” experience.

The grant program was created just two years after Light Work came into fruition, and is one of the longest-running programs of its kind in the U.S. The grant gives artists a chance to be seen in both Light Work’s gallery and its annual contact sheet, which is sent to art galleries around the country.

This year’s grant recipients are Robert Knight, Lida Suchy, and Marion Wilson. From photographing up-close images of botany to capturing abandoned churches around the country, these three artists use their storied backgrounds and vast art experience in their work.

Robert Knight

Knight began his art career studying architecture, and turned to photography to learn more about his craft. He said taking pictures helps him understand architecture and allows him to explore some of his creative interests.

Originally from Boston, Knight moved around the east coast before settling in Clinton, New York. He has been an assistant professor of art at Hamilton College for the past two years, and spent that time working on his photo portfolio with the hopes of one day qualifying for the Light Work grant.

His photographs focus on different religious spaces and the people living around them.

“I was really interested in the space and how they really give you a sense of community and identity,” Knight said.

Knight recently traveled around Europe while on sabbatical, discovering and photographing houses of worship that experienced some sort of change over the past few years. He said it takes him a while to decide on a location, but once he decides on the right place he spends days there, photographing the rooms, the people and the services.

When looking for locations, Knight said he focused on the dominant religion there, because he said it is the most representative of the community, be it a church, mosque or synagogue.

“I’m interested in the juxtaposition between culture and religion, and the common themes among the spaces, in addition to the populations who use those spaces” Knight said.

When approaching a shoot, Knight said he attempts to capture as much movement and motion as possible, whether it be participants knelt down in prayer or standing in praise. He said he tries to focus on “how participants make the space theirs.” The most important aspect of photography is making the images visually appealing to the viewer.

Lida Suchy

Courtesy of Lida Suchy

Suchy draws from many inspirations for her work — most notably her background. She is part of a Ukranian refugee family.

For the past 20 years, Suchy has been photographing the inhabitants of a small village in Western Ukraine. She said she focused on the individual villagers — creating a “composite portrait of the community.” She said growing up, her parents would tell her stories of Ukraine and she had always wanted to visit and photograph the memories they described.

“I want to confront the image built up from the recollections of my parents with one of my own,” she said.

When she’s photographing her subjects, Suchy said she focuses on the person and their long-term relationships with the others living in the village. She said that though her clothing and belongings signaled her status as a foreigner, her ability to speak the language and her connection to the village through her parents helped her break the wall and get immersed in the town’s culture.

Besides interviewing and photographing her subjects, Suchy teaches art at Onondaga Community College. She said teaching has influenced her work in a way that she can take her art and her art practice and translate it back to her students. Suchy said she is always learning new things through photography, lessons she can teach her students.

Some of the best advice she can give her art students relates to developing work over time and making it their own.

“Everybody has their own voice, and it takes a while to find that,” she said. “My voice comes from my background.”

Though her work focuses primarily on her past, Suchy said she is always looking to expand her work and capture more of the villagers in the future.
Why?
“Because that’s life,” she said. “It’s exciting and vibrant and always changing.”

Marion Wilson

Courtesy of Marion Wilson

Wilson, a professor in Syracuse’s School of Education, focuses her photographs around an unlikely subject: moss.

The artist calls her work a “cross between art and botany,” placing microscopic pieces of moss on painted sheets of Mylar, or plastic sheets. The result is a photograph that looks like a microscope slide.

Wilson began her art work as a painter over 20 years ago, and has adopted photography for the past two. She said she first learned and became passionate about moss when taking a botany class taught by an ESF professor, Robin Wall Kimmerer.

Wilson began traveling around the United States photographing different species of moss, and later applied for the Light Work grant as a way to continue the series.

Besides the fragility of the species itself, Wilson said she was attracted to the fact that moss is the only plant that can dry out and come back to life, which she says connects to Jesus Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection.

“There has always been an element of spirituality in my work,” she said. “It’s part of my upbringing, the ritual of going to church and learning all these different stories. The idea of something that exists and doesn’t exist, something that is concrete and not concrete at the same time — that’s a big part of my work.”

There is also an element of political activism in Wilson’s photographs. Outside of teaching, she engages with the city of Syracuse through multiple community services projects geared towards teaching inner-city kids about art.

Wilson said photographing something many people consider insignificant “asks us to pay attention.”

Despite the challenge of finding new subjects that photography brings, Wilson said she has no plans to stop anytime soon.

“I constantly am seeing and learning new things,” she said. “I’m always stunned by what I haven’t seen before.”

Published on September 19, 2016 at 8:57 pm

Contact Hanna: hrhorvat@syr.edu