Highlights From the Light Work Collection: Dawoud Bey

Curated from the Light Work collection, members of the Syracuse University campus community are invited to check out a selection from two of Dawoud Bey’s photographic projects: “An American Project,” and “Embracing Eatonville.”

Black-and-white images from “An American Project,” made in Syracuse in 1985 during Bey’s artist residency at Light Work, chronicle the community and history of South Salina Street. These prints were recently gifted by Bey and Stephen Daiter Gallery to celebrate the dedication of the Jeffrey J.Hoone Gallery.

“Embracing Eatonville” was a photographic survey of Eatonville, Florida—the oldest Black-incorporated town in the United States—that featured work by Bey, Lonnie Graham, Carrie Mae Weems and Deborah Willis, and was exhibited at Light Work in 2003. Bey
made color photographs of high school students combining their portraits with text sharing personal hopes, fears, and dreams.

“I was invited to do a residency at Light Work in 1985, after being introduced to the organization by my friends, photographers Michael Spano and Sy Rubin. Applying and being accepted has remained an important highlight of my career almost forty years later,” Bey says. “It was the first time I was also able to have the kind of absolute support that allowed me to have what is still one of my most productive months ever as an artist. That support was something that I’d never experienced before, and it allowed for a profound burst of creative activity, going out into the Syracuse community every day to make photographs without the worry about how that investment of time would be remunerated.”

The projects will be on display in the Jeffrey J. Hoone Gallery at Light Work (316 Waverly Ave.) from March 18 through May 17.