Light Work Podcast

About Light Work Podcast

The podcast from Light Work, a non-profit photography organization in Syracuse, New York — Support this podcast by treating yourself or a loved one to something at www.lightwork.org/shop (www.lightwork.org/shop) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information.

Publisher

Light Work

Category

arts · arts

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

23 Mar 2020

Latest episode

25 Sept 2026

Latest episodes

48 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   25 Sept 2026

   Sayler/Morris and Christina Seely: museum

   Sayler/Morris and Christina Seely: museum August 24 – December 11, 2026 Kathleen O. Ellis Gallery Opening Reception: Thursday, September 24, 5-7 PM Light Work is pleased to present museum, a collaborative photographic exhibition by the artists Sayler/Morris (Susannah Sayler and Ed Morris) and Christina Seely. The images in this installation were made in 2014 during the artists’ time as Smithsonian Artist Research Fellows, when they photographed the disassembly of the iconic National Fossil Hall at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. More than a decade later, during a 2025 studio visit, the artists rediscovered the photographs and saw them in a new light. Time had changed the images; it had amplified their disorienting, dreamlike qualities. What is presented inside this exhibition at Light Work is the breaking down of a museum exhibit. The idea of a museum, its authority, certainty, and clarity, is replaced with the rediscovery of the original meaning of museum—a site for muses, a site where knowledge is not fixed but in perpetual development. This exhibition arrives at a time when museums themselves have become contested spaces and facts themselves have become endangered. Sayler/Morris and Seely’s museum installation asks: How do we consider the use of museum spaces to respect evidence while at the same time recognizing knowledge as ever-evolving, contingent, and partial? And what is the power and role of the museum of the future? Susannah Sayler and Edward Morris (Sayler/Morris) are interdisciplinary artists whose work considers the intersection of human histories and ecology. They have been awarded numerous fellowships, including the Guggenheim Fellowship (2023), and have exhibited widely, including an upcoming permanent installation at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. Sayler is full professor in the Department of Film and Media Arts at Syracuse University. Sayler/Morris live and work in Hudson, NY. sayler-morris.com (https://www.sayler-morris.com/) Christina Seely’s multifaceted photographic work maps our increasingly tenuous relationship to the nonhuman living world. Her work is held in many collections and has been exhibited widely, including at the Anchorage Museum in Alaska, KunstHausWein in Austria, and the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago. She was a 2023 Guggenheim Fellow and a 2024–25 US/UK Fulbright Scholar. She works between the US and Scotland. christinaseely.com (https://www.christinaseely.com/) — Special thanks to Daylight Blue Media daylightblue.com (http://daylightblue.com) Light Work lightwork.org (http://lightwork.org) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information.

2. 

   15 Jul 2026

   2026 Light Work Grants in Photography: Maureen Beitler, Hernease Davis, Ian Sherlock Molloy, Amrita Stützle, and Patty Tomanovich

   2026 Light Work Grants in Photography: Maureen Beitler, Hernease Davis, Ian Sherlock Molloy, Amrita Stützle, and Patty Tomanovich June 15 – August 7, 2026 Kathleen O. Ellis Gallery Reception: Friday, August 7, 5-7pm For its fifty-first year, Light Work has expanded the region to include all of New York state, with the exception of New York City. The five grant recipients: Maureen Beitler (Columbia), Hernease Davis (Monroe), Ian Sherlock Molloy (Onondaga), Amrita Stützle (Onondaga), and Patty Tomanovich (Monroe). These photographers reflect the strength and vitality of our talented regional community. They explore the full range of what it means to be an image-maker today. More info at https://www.lightwork.org/archive/2026-light-work-grants-in-photography-maureen-beitler-hernease-davis-ian-sherlock-molloy-amrita-stutzle-and-patty-tomanovich/ — Special thanks to Daylight Blue Media daylightblue.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information.

3. 

   10 Apr 2026

   Brian Van Lau: We're Just Here for the Bad Guys

   We’re Just Here for the Bad Guys chronicles Brian Van Lau’s relationship with his estranged father. Lau’s father was absent during his childhood due to his incarceration. After his release, he rebuilt his life in Vietnam, remarried, and gradually disappeared from Lau’s life. Nearly a decade later, Lau traveled to Vietnam following his father’s sudden illness, and learned of his terminal cancer. During their final week together, they collaborated on a photographic project that documented his father’s unsuccessful path toward recovery. After his father’s passing, Lau returned to his hometown in Hawai‘i seeking closure, uncovering hidden correspondence that revealed previously unknown parts of his father’s life. Entrusted with dispersing his father’s ashes across O‘ahu, the artist began working with his grandparents to reconstruct this fragmented family history through photography. Image credit: Brian Van Lau, Ritual, 2024 — Brian Van Lau (b. 1996, Honolulu, HI) is a self-taught Vietnamese American photographer based between Honolulu, HI, and Los Angeles, CA. His work often explores generational relationships, history, inheritance, and grief. His methods include connecting photographs of his own with other collected and appropriated materials. His first monograph, We’re Just Here for the Bad Guys, was published by Light Work in 2026. He is a 2025 Penumbra Workspace Artist-in-Residence, 2023 Aperture Portfolio Prize runner-up, a recipient of the 2024 Google x Aperture Creator Labs Photo Fund, a winner of the 2023 Innovate Grant, and a selected participant in the 2023 New York Portfolio Review. He has been shortlisted for the Hopper Prize and is the founder of Arcanite Pictures, an online platform and publisher dedicated to highlighting emerging artists. His work was most recently exhibited at the Hō‘ikeākea Gallery in Honolulu, HI, as part of Float On, curated by Phil Jung. Lau has lectured at the Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona in Tucson, and Northwind Art School in Port Townsend, WA. His work has been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, Vogue, and many more. — brianvanlau.com Special thanks to Daylight Blue Media daylightblue.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information.

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

10 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 16 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

11

Social presence

0

YouTube

0

Engagement

51

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