Artist-run nonprofit Light Work at Syracuse University is celebrating 50 years of supporting emerging and under-recognized visual artists working in photography and lens-based media.

Light Work helps artists through access to equipment, and elevates marginalized groups and provides funding to help launch careers.

“A lot of people just take pictures with their phone and they never make a physical copy of it,” said Light Work member William Stith. “I think making something that lives and that exists in the real world is super important.”

On this day Stith, a street photographer, was making prints at Light Work.

“Having access to printing, which is what I’m trying to do today at a relatively affordable price, and also the education is huge,” he said.

Light Work is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, and executive director Dan Boardman says the driving force behind its creation in 1973 was a push for access to those educational opportunities Stith referenced.

“In 1972, there were campus protests and they demanded a few things,” he said. “They wanted a radio station, TV station, a community access dark room and a health food store.”

That community access dark room soon became Light Work, and he said funding for the nonprofit at the time also had a mandate to help artists from marginalized communities, which became a cornerstone of the mission.

“It really set us in place to help underserved communities right from the very beginning,” Stith said.

Helping Stith today is Ryan Krueger, who, through Light Work, has an exhibit called On Longing opening May 5 at downtown Syracuse’s Everson Museum of Art. It focuses on lost visual culture of gay history prior to the 1960s.

“They did a good job at giving a platform and space and power to artists who have been historically excluded,” he said. “For myself, this has been a safe space for me to feel like I can make my work and have the conversations that I need to have.”

Boardman says in addition to access to top quality equipment, Light Work also provides grant funding and residencies to artists like Ben Cleaton, who says the funding and support is critical to getting off the ground.

“The grant funding is huge for exposure,” he said. “The financial aspect is huge for projects, and just to be able to have a show here to be part of an exhibit is huge.”

And for Stith, it provides the joy of seeing his hard work in a physical state, larger and more vibrant than he’s ever seen it before.

“I’m addicted, and I’m going want to make bigger prints like all the time,” he said.

You can visit Light Work’s 50th anniversary exhibit at the Everson Museum of Art in downtown Syracuse through May 14.