Deana Lawson
March 2008

Deana Lawson joins Light Work for her residency to scan and print large-scale exhibition and portfolio prints, using our Imacon scanners and Epson 9800 printers. She has also taken advantage of her time and new location to connect with Syracuse subjects for portrait shoots that expands on her series involving individuals and families photographed in their homes or the studio. Her work stems from an interest in the "realness" of the family snapshot, but her large-format scale brings a certain grandeur and intensity of detail to the snapshot aesthetic, allowing the viewer a close proximity to comprehending a subject's connection to their external and internal worlds, i.e., family, home, and identity. Lawson positions family members within their home and community as sites ripe with information and self-awareness, allowing psychological explorations of the "lived moment" recorded by her camera.

Lawson holds an MFA in Photography from Rhode Island School of Design, and has received numerous awards, such as fellowships with the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) and The Photography Institute at Columbia University. Her work has received national recognition, and is exhibited widely, at venues like The Print Center in Philadelphia, PA, and the Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY.

John Clark Mayden
April 2008

John Clark Mayden is dedicating his time at Light Work to printing his black-and-white images of city life in Baltimore, MD. Mayden's images capture, in his words, "the realities of black people living in low income cities." His work depicts the wide range of experiences found in inner city life, from good times and joy to drugs, misery, social injustice, and crime. Mayden feels that photographers are put in the unique position to record life as they see it, and that they should maintain the skills of documentation, composition, and printing so that future generations can see accurate pictures of life during a certain time, in a certain place. He has used photography his whole life to address social injustices, and has worked frequently with organizations whose mission is to serve low income communities, families, and children.

Mayden has worked in Baltimore's Law Department for twenty-six years. He obtained his BA from Ohio Wesleyan University and his Juris Doctorate from the University of Baltimore School of Law. His photographs have been exhibited nationwide, and are featured in permanent collections at Baltimore Museum of Art and Ohio Wesleyan University, among others.

Cristina Fraire
April 2008

Argentinean photographer Cristina Fraire will be using her time at Light Work to work with images from her The Austere Life, Shepherds at the End of the Millennium photographic essay. Fraire's images capture mountain shepherd communities that are isolated high in the Cordoba province—communities that do not use electricity or telephones, don't have roads, and depend on sheep as their single economic resource. According to the International Center for Photography, "In the barren and rocky terrain, the ancient connections between generations remained unchanged until urban ways were introduced by tourists and solar-powered televisions. Fraire's pictures reflect this blending of the ancient and new, but also assert the distinctive features of the shepherds' natural landscape." She will use her residency to evaluate the photographs, oral testimonies, and texts for printing and the potential creation of a book dummy.

Fraire's work has been featured in both solo and group exhibitions internationally. She studied psychology at Universidad de Buenos Aires and fine arts at the Argentine Society for Fine Arts Artists, then went on to teach fine arts to children. When she discovered photography, she decided to quit teaching to dedicate her life to photography full-time.

Scott Conarroe
May 2008

Scott Conarroe spent September through December 2007 working on a photographic study of North America's rail infrastructure, and he is dedicating his residency at Light Work to digitally scanning and printing these images. In Conarroe's words, "At this point in history, railroads connecting the settlements and mythic landscapes of this continent exist in various states from development opportunity to stubborn lifeline to artifact." This project has taken him through both urban and rural areas. Conarroe believes that the changes in rail travel over time can be discussed in relation to topics of climate change, globalization, as well as urban sprawl, and that the popularity of rail travel may grow given the difficulties of the current car culture. This project was supported by a Canada Council for the Arts Grant which Conarroe received in 2007.

Conarroe obtained his BFA from Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design in Vancouver, BC, and his MFA from Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in Halifax, NS. His photographs have been exhibited internationally, and his work is featured in the permanent collections at Mt. St. Vincent's University Art Gallery in Halifax, NS; Kitchener/Waterloo Art Gallery in Kitchener, Ontario; and multiple private collections.

Admas Habteslasie
June 2008

London-based artist Admas Habteslasie comes to the Light Work Artist-in-Residence program through Autograph ABP. He plans to use his residency to digitally scan and print images from his series Limbo. This work looks at the East African country of Eritrea, a country that is suspended in limbo between war and peace. Eritrea warred with Ethiopia for thirty years before gaining independence in 1991. Then, in 1998, they entered another war with Ethiopia over the border town of Badme, which both countries claimed to be their own. The war lasted two years, and has since left the people of Eritrea waiting for life to improve. According to Habteslasie, "Transitory states become permanent; empty villas, destroyed old buildings and unfinished new buildings dot the landscape, monuments to the suspension of history. The collision between Eritrea's proud historical narrative and the bleak ennui of the present has produced an obsessive focus on the future. Reconstruction and infrastructure development are energetically driven forward whilst the economy remains essentially shut off from the outside world."

Habteslasie received his MA from the London College of Communication in photojournalism and documentary photography. His photographic projects look at the ideas of identity and history, and reevaluation of our relationship with historical process. Each year Light Work welcomes one Artist-in-Residence selected through Autograph ABP, a charity that works internationally to educate the public about photography, with a particular emphasis on issues of cultural identity and human rights.

Amy Stein
June 2008

Amy Stein plans to use her residency at Light Work to edit and print images, as well as prepare a book dummy, of work from her series Domesticated. The images from Domesticated, based on stories found in newspapers or told between people, depict recreations of both random and intentional interactions between humans and animals. According to Stein, "My photographs explore our paradoxical relationship with the 'wild' and how our conflicting impulses continue to evolve and alter the behavior of both humans and animals. We at once seek connection with the mystery and freedom of the natural world, yet we continually strive to tame the wild around us and compulsively control the wild within our own nature." Images from this series were first exhibited in 2006, and have since been shown nationwide. Her work looks at primal issues such as submission and dominance, or fear and comfort.

Stein received a BS in political science from James Madison University in Virginia; an MS in political science from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland; and her MFA in photography from the School of Visual Arts in New York City. Her photographs have been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions nationwide, and she has received numerous awards including a Critical Mass Book Award in 2007. She is currently a professor of photography at Parsons the New School for Design in New York City.

Kelli Connell
July 2008

Kelli Connell plans to use her residency at Light Work to scan and digitally print images from her Double Life series. The photographs from this series depict the same model appearing multiple times in one image. According to Connell, "This work represents an autobiographical questioning of sexuality and gender roles that shape the identity of the self in intimate relationships." The work looks at different polarities of identity, such as the exterior and interior self, the irrational and rational self, the masculine and feminine psyche, and the motivated and resigned self. Connell combines multiple negatives featuring the same model, depicting the different polarities through the use of clothing and body language. The work in this series has been exhibited in New York and San Francisco, as well as included in various publications.

Connell received her MFA in photography from Texas Woman's University, and her BFA in both photography and visual art studies from the University of North Texas. Her work has been exhibited nationwide. Connell has also received various awards and residencies, and given lectures and workshops across the country. Connell currently teaches at Columbia College in Chicago

Krista Steinke
July 2008

Krista Steinke will use her residency at Light Work to scan negatives and print images from two series, Backyards, BB Guns, and Nursery Rhymes , and Sand Castles in the Compost Pile. The series Backyards, BB Guns, and Nursery Rhymes is a photo and video series inspired by memory, fairy tales, and fables. According to Steinke, "Placing a contemporary spin on familiar archetypal stories, I use references from children's literature as a point of departure to question the nature of innocence and comment on the human psyche." The series Sand Castles in the Compost Pile uses the same conceptual style, but uses adult models to look at the lines between fantasy/reality and entrapment/escapism in contemporary suburban life.

Steinke received a BA in advanced humanities from Valparaiso University, a BFA from the School of Art Institute of Chicago, and an MFA in photography and digital imaging from The Maryland Institute, College of Art. Her work has been exhibited nationwide, and she has received various awards and fellowships including First Place for the 2007 Singular Image at CENTER, Santa Fe. Steinke is currently an assistant professor at Moravian College.

Lola Flash
August 2008

Lola Flash plans to use her residency to refine scans and prints of her series [sur]passing. She also foresees shooting images towards two new bodies of work, entitled epicene and quartet. All three series reflect Flash's ongoing obsession with boundaries and the physical and ideological areas that exist concerning those boundaries. Begun in 2002, [sur]passing examines how skin color impacts black identity both in real life and in front of the camera. With the portraits in epicene, Flash depicts a mosaic of subjects who have challenged societal confines, including those of race, class, and gender. Photographed in various cities in the United States and abroad, quartet looks at the interstitial places that comprise these cities and define the lives of their inhabitants.

Flash was born in the United States and is of African and Native American heritage. She spent ten years in London, where she regularly exhibited her work and also attained her MA. A classic Flash photograph, Stay Afloat, Use a Rubber, is part of London's Victoria and Albert Museum collection. She is now based in New York where she continues to teach and create. Read more about Flash and her work at www.lolaflash.com.

Oscar Palacio
August 2008

Oscar Palacio's residency will focus on work from the series History Re-Visited. In these images, Palacio reveals the beautiful and enigmatic disparity that often exists between the monumental historical events that make a site important and what we actually find there. With this series, Palacio explores the nature of public space and how the roles of both architecture and photography shape and create experience. During his time at Light Work, Palacio will scan and make prints of some of the images he has made in historic sites such as Plymouth and Salem, MA, and Gettysburg, PA, among others. He also plans to research and photograph sites around Syracuse that played a part in the Underground Railroad.

Palacio was born in Medellin, Colombia. He holds a BA in Architecture from the University of Miami, Florida, and an MFA in Photography from Massachusetts College of Art, Boston. In addition to the exhibition Are We There Yet at the Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago, from July 20-September 28, 2008, Palacio's work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally; his photographs are included in the collections of the Center for Creative Photography, Tucson, AR; the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University; the Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, MA; and the Universidad de Antioquia, Medellin, Colombia, among other institutions. Visit www.oscarpalacio.net for more information.