Skip to main content
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • ’Cuse Conversations Podcast
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
Arts & Culture
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • University Statements
  • Syracuse University Impact
  • |
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
Sections
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • University Statements
  • Syracuse University Impact
  • |
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • ’Cuse Conversations Podcast
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
Arts & Culture

Light Work Presents Gerard H. Gaskin’s ‘Legendary’

Tuesday, February 4, 2014, By News Staff
Share

legendaryLight Work is presenting Gerard H. Gaskin’s “Legendary,” through Aug. 8 in the Robert B. Menschel Photography Gallery in the Schine Student Center.

A lecture sponsored by the Syracuse University LGBT Resource Center will be held on Wednesday, Feb. 12, from 7-10 p.m. in 304ABC Schine Student Center. The talk is free and open to students and community members. The exhibition is open daily from 10 a.m.–10 p.m.

Gaskin’s radiant color and black-and-white photographs take viewers inside the culture of house balls, underground events where gay and transgender men and women, mostly African American and Latino, come together to see and be seen. At balls, high-spirited late-night pageants, members of particular “houses”—the House of Blahnik, the House of Xtravaganza—“walk,” competing for trophies in categories based on costume, attitude, dance moves and “realness.” In this exuberant world of artistry and self fashioning, people often marginalized for being who they are can flaunt and celebrate their most vibrant, spectacular selves.

“Legendary,” composed of photos taken at events in the New York city area, Philadelphia, Richmond and Washington, D.C., is a collaboration between Gaskin, a camera-laden outsider who has been attending balls for 20 years, and the house members who let him enter the intimate world of ball culture.

Gaskin is the winner of the 2012 Center for Documentary Studies/Honickman First Book Prize in Photography, selected by Deborah Willis. A native of Trinidad and Tobago, Gaskin earned a B.A. from Hunter College in 1994 and is now a freelance photographer based in the greater New York City area. His photos have appeared in the New York Times, Newsday, Black Enterprise, OneWorld, Teen People, Caribbean Beat and DownBeat. Among his other clients are the record companies Island, Sony, Def Jam and Mercury.

Gaskin’s photographs have been featured in solo and group exhibitions across the United States and abroad, and his work is held in the collections of such institutions as the Museum of the City of New York and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. Gaskin has been awarded the New York Foundation for the Arts Artist Fellowship for Photography and was part of the Gordon Parks’ “90,” the bringing together of 90 black photographers from all over the United States to celebrate his 90th birthday. His work is also featured in the books “Inside the L.A. Riots” (1992), “New York: A State of Mind” (2000) and “Committed to the Image: Contemporary Black Photographers” (2001).

For more information, contact info@lightwork.org or call 315-443-1300.

  • Author

News Staff

  • Recent
  • LaunchPad Awards Student Start-Up Fund Grant
    Saturday, July 12, 2025, By Cristina Hatem
  • Class of ’25 College of Law Graduate to Be Inducted Into the U.S. Olympic Hall Of Fame
    Saturday, July 12, 2025, By Caroline K. Reff
  • Empowering Learners With Personalized Microcredentials, Stackable Badges
    Thursday, July 3, 2025, By Hope Alvarez
  • WISE Women’s Business Center Awarded Grant From Empire State Development, Celebrates Entrepreneur of the Year Award
    Thursday, July 3, 2025, By Dawn McWilliams
  • Rose Tardiff ’15: Sparking Innovation With Data, Mapping and More
    Thursday, July 3, 2025, By News Staff

More In Arts & Culture

LaunchPad Awards Student Start-Up Fund Grant

The Blackstone LaunchPad at Syracuse University Libraries has awarded a Student Start-Up Fund grant for the Spring 2025 semester to Thomas O’Brien ’25 for his company, Ten Open Projects. Grants are awarded on a rolling basis to undergraduate and graduate…

From Wedding Day Pics on Campus to Working at ‘Otto’s House’: Brianna and Kevin Shults Share Their Orange Love Story

It started with trivia nights at the Inn Complete and a mutual fandom of Orange sports and grew into a life filled with Orange pride, campus milestones and a little one who thinks Otto the Orange runs the world. For…

Former Orange Point Guard and Maxwell Alumna ‘Roxi’ Nurse McNabb Still Driving for an Assist

As point guard for the Orange women’s basketball team, Raquel-Ann “Roxi” Nurse McNabb ’98, G’99 was known for helping her teammates ‘make buckets’—a lot of buckets. The 1997 Syracuse University Athlete of the Year, two-time team MVP and three-time BIG…

Vintage Over Digital: Alumnus Dan Cohen’s Voyager CD Bag Merges Music and Fashion

Bucking the trend of streaming music platforms and contrary to what one might expect of a member of his generation, musician Dan Cohen ’25 prefers listening to his favorite artists on compact disc (CD) and record players. His research and…

Empowering Learners With Personalized Microcredentials, Stackable Badges

The University is enhancing its commitment to lifelong learning with digital badges, a tool that recognizes and authenticates the completion of microcredentials. The badges aim to support learners in their professional and personal development by showcasing achievements in short, focused…

Subscribe to SU Today

If you need help with your subscription, contact sunews@syr.edu.

Connect With Us

  • X
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
Social Media Directory

For the Media

Find an Expert Follow @SyracuseUNews
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
  • @SyracuseU
  • @SyracuseUNews
  • Social Media Directory
  • Accessibility
  • Privacy
  • Campus Status
  • Syracuse.edu
© 2025 Syracuse University News. All Rights Reserved.