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 Exhibition ‘After Edith’ to Close Dec. 19

Tuesday, December 8, 2015, By News Staff
Share

The exhibition “After Edith” by photographer Gideon Barnett, currently on display in the Kathleen O. Ellis Gallery at Light Work, will continue until Dec. 19.

A selection from “After Edith”“After Edith” brings together a collection of images that Barnett produced by documenting vandalized photography books found in public libraries. The project began in Miami with the discovery of a copy of Emmet Gowin’s “Photographs” in which the iconic nude portraits of Gowin’s wife, Edith, had been defaced by prurient library visitors. Parts of the images had been cut with a razor blade and, in some instances, entirely torn out of the book. This deliberate removal of “provocative” imagery and the psychology of what may have sparked such an act fascinated Barnett, and prompted a closer look at the visual by-products—the way in which the cuts open through to another image, for example, or how the tearing of a page can create a compelling juxtaposition of photographs. The vandalized images are unquestionably elegant and beautiful when taken out of context and framed on the wall, yet all together Barnett’s photographs also point to a disconcertingly fearful, destructive or even violent intention.

Some librarians would attempt to mend the most heavily vandalized books by pasting inky black-and-white photocopies of the original pages back into the books. These replacements, reminiscent of smudged charcoal drawings, were equally intriguing to Barnett, so he physically removed the sheets of paper and collected them along the way as a counterpart to the photographs he was making. In his exhibition at Light Work, Barnett shows the photocopies as unique objects, pinned by small magnets into playful forms onto pieces of chalkboard. Barnett visited libraries across South Florida and discovered a number of books that had been altered, and his collection of photographs grew to include traces of other well-known images spanning the last century of photography, from Edward Weston to Gregory Crewdson. Though the reference points within the medium of photography are certainly interesting to see, “After Edith” aims to consider larger cultural and political concerns of censorship and human nature. Through a thoughtful combination of photographs of vandalized book pages and original found photocopies, Barnett simultaneously recounts that so much of what a photograph signifies will be determined by what the viewer brings to the image. “I’m interested in the generative potential of this vandalism,” explains Barnett, “and how just by reframing it with a camera it can become something new, something on its own.”

Barnett is an artist from Jasper, Tenn., currently living in Philadelphia. His work has been exhibited at the Pérez Art Museum, the Museum of Art Fort Lauderdale and the Wolfsonian–FIU in South Florida; at Nicole Klagsbrun Project and Hunter College in New York City; at New Insight at Art Chicago; and at the Passage Pommeraye in Nantes, France. He received his M.F.A. and the Toby Devan Lewis Fellowship from Yale in 2011, and in 2013 was awarded a South Florida Cultural Consortium Fellowship. He runs Lord Ludd in Olde City, Philadelphia, with Mylinh Trieu Nguyen.

  • Author

News Staff

  • Recent
  • Doctoral Candidate Wins Grant for Research on Infrastructure, Violence and Resistance in Pakistan
    Friday, August 1, 2025, By News Staff
  • Co-President of Disability Law Society Eyes Career in National Security Law in Washington
    Thursday, July 31, 2025, By Jordan Bruenger
  • Lender Center New York Event Gathers Wealth Gap Experts
    Wednesday, July 30, 2025, By Diane Stirling
  • After Tragedy, Newhouse Grad Rediscovers Her Voice Through Podcasting
    Wednesday, July 30, 2025, By Chris Velardi
  • Back-to-School Shopping: More Expensive and Less Variety of Back-to-School Items
    Tuesday, July 29, 2025, By Daryl Lovell

More In Arts & Culture

How New Words Enter Our Language: A Linguistics Expert Explains

From “yeet” to “social distancing,” new words and phrases constantly emerge and evolve in American English. But how do these neologisms—newly coined terms—gain acceptance and become part of mainstream dialect? We interviewed Christopher Green, associate professor of linguistics in the…

Art Museum Acquires Indian Scrolls Gifted by SUNY Professor

The University Art Museum has received a monumental gift of more than 80 traditional Indian patachitra scrolls, significantly expanding its collection of South Asian art and material culture. The scrolls were donated by Geraldine Forbes, Distinguished Teaching Professor Emerita at…

Architecture Students’ Project Selected for Royal Academy Exhibition

In a prestigious international honor, a project by three students from the School of Architecture has been selected for inclusion in the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 2025, currently on view in London. The work, titled “Evolving an Urban Ecology,” was…

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…

VPA Announces New Drama Department Chair

The College of Visual and Performing Arts (VPA) has appointed Eleanor Holdridge as the new chair of the Department of Drama effective July 1. Holdridge comes to Syracuse University from the Catholic University of America, where she served as professor…

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.