Syracuse alumnus Shawn Records will return to campus Nov. 2, and this time he’ll be able to produce any piece of work he wants.

Records will be one of this year’s 11 Light Work’s artists in residence. The program invites artists each year to leave their lives and focus solely on their work for a month. Light Work, based in Syracuse University’s Watson Hall, is a photographer’s paradise. It has 35-45 millimeter polycontrast filters built into the photo enlargers, digital timers in the dark room, a custom digital printer and controlled lighting monitors. Photography jargon aside, the space, meant to support and encourage emerging artists, is well known among photographers across the country for its programs. Around 300 to 400 photographers apply for the Artist-in-Residence program. Twelve to 14 are accepted each year.

While the space is open for SU students and Syracuse community members to learn and work with film-photography, for individuals who participate in the Artist-in-Residence program, Light Work becomes much more than a work space.

‘That’s their time away from everything else. It’s a really intense time, and most say they get three to four months of work done,’ said Mary Goodwin, Light Work associate director. ‘It (Light Work) really becomes their home for a month.’ To facilitate their work, artists in residence are given an apartment in Syracuse, a personal room within the Light Work space, a $4,000 stipend for the month and $500 printing credit in the Light Work studios.

‘It’s probably the most generous residency of its kind in the country,’ Goodwin said. ‘The space has everything an artist in residence would want.’

Records, who received his MFA in art photography from SU in 2003 and exhibited his work across the United States, in London and in Paris, said he plans to finish a book-length project called Harbor.

‘I’m looking forward to living in a cave of productivity,’ Records said of returning to SU. His Harbor project would usually take him months to complete, but he plans to finish it and prepare his work for exhibition during the month that he is an artist in residence at Light Work.

‘There is a mix of students, community, serious professional amateur artists and professional artists,’ said Vernon Brunette, Light Work customer service manager, ‘and they all mix here.’

The space features community darkrooms that were renovated last summer, where workshops are held to introduce newcomers to the technology involved in creating photography and various five-week classes are scheduled to begin later this month on Nov. 24. Artists come to participate in the program from all over the country, but for the past couple of months, Light Work did not have any participating artists. Greenfield attributes this to popularity in specific months of the year. She said that many people who apply to be artists in residence are educators and have to work around a school schedule, which is particularly busy in September and October, when deciding when to come to Syracuse.

Goodwin said that having a new artist in residence will offer yet another amenity that only a serious photographer could bring to the space.

‘This is a facility rooted in Syracuse. Residents come and leave but (Light Work) started here and, primarily, it’s for the Syracuse community,’ she said. ‘Residents often interact with others working here. They have a perspective that is very helpful for newer artists. This is where the art world meets local artists, and they facilitate that.’ ampaye@syr.edu

Published on October 27, 2009 at 12:00 pm