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32-569: VSW was founded in 1969 by photographer, writer, curator and educator, Nathan Lyons . VSW is an artist-run educational and support center for photography, artist books, media arts, and experimental games. VSW ran a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) program through SUNY Buffalo until 1981, and then through State University of New York at Brockport until 2022. Since its inception, VSW has had connections with regional artists and communities involved with early experimental video and media access, including Experimental Television Center , Steina and Woody Vasulka ,

64-529: A Heidelberg offset press to produce publications that artists, staff, and students had constructed. The process of publication was then switched to digital means with the addition of a computer lab. Many artists-in-residence that have come through VSW have published through VSW Press. Nathan Lyons Nathan Lyons (January 10, 1930 – August 31, 2016) was an American photographer, curator , and educator. He exhibited his photographs from 1956 onwards, produced books of his own and edited those of others. Lyons

96-440: A Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degree through SUNY Buffalo , a program with a focus on expanding the potential for photography, books, and media arts. American photographer Charles H. Traub described VSW as the "first school to stimulate curatorial interest in photography." This environment differed from a traditional arts-academic setting, with students from a range of backgrounds that were not exclusive to visual arts. The MFA program

128-420: A forum for the discussion of photography and related media as a means of creative expression and cultural insight. In 1969 Lyons resigned from George Eastman House and founded Visual Studies Workshop . Three years later he founded Afterimage , a play on Image magazine published by George Eastman House. In 1983 he organized Oracle, an annual meeting of curators and directors of photographic institutions. He

160-889: A photographer and reported to Grenier Air Force Base in Manchester, New Hampshire. Between 1951 and 1953 he served as senior photographer in a photo intelligence unit in Kimpo, Korea. In 1953 Lyons returned to the United States and worked for the Air Force as a staff news writer and public relations photographer in Marietta, Georgia. In 1954 following honorable discharge from the Air Force he returned to Alfred University where he majored in English literature and minored in theatre. He also studied photography and exhibition design with

192-496: A plastic Falcon camera while working in his family's glass and mirror business. In 1947 he received a camera as a graduation gift and between 1947 and 1948 he photographed around Times Square, New York and assisted various photographers. From 1948 to 1950 Lyons enrolled at Technical College at Alfred , Alfred, New York where he studied business and marketing. In 1950 he enlisted in the United States Air Force as

224-777: A program in Photographic Studies to Eric Larrabee, the provost of SUNY Buffalo. The proposal included Lyons, Beaumont Newhall , and John Wood as instructors. This led to a pilot program at the George Eastman Museum , where Lyons was curator, and following Lyons' resignation from the museum, the founding of VSW in 1969. The word "art" is seldom mentioned at the Visual Studies Workshop in Rochester, New York. There's plenty of talk, however, about "perception" and "process." The director of

256-546: Is currently published by the University of California Press . The publication includes visual arts, photography, independent film, and video, new media and alternative publishing. It covers topics of issues and debates within art history, visual and cultural studies, and related fields. Afterimage also includes articles, conference and festival reports, book and exhibition reviews, artist's books, and exhibition catalogs. The works of VSW Press in many ways exemplify and define

288-617: Is located on Pinnacle Hill on the border between Rochester and Brighton . WXXI-TV's national public television productions include A Warrior in Two Worlds , Echoes from the Ancients , Out of the Fire , Albert Paley: Man of Steel , Biz Kid$ , and Flight to Freedom . WXXI-TV also produced Assignment: The World , a weekly current-events program for schools, which aired on approximately 100 public television stations nationwide, and

320-724: The Albright Knox Art Gallery . His work was also included in the exhibition, Photography and Art; Interactions since 1945 at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art . The series Riding First Class on the Titanic! was completed in 1999 and the works exhibited in various public institutions and museums including the Addison Gallery of American Art , Andover, MA. The first major retrospective of his work, Nathan Lyons: A Survey, 1957–2000

352-575: The Videofreex , and in particular, Rochester's grassroots media access organization, Portable Channel. In the Winter 1961 issue of Aperture , Nathan Lyons described the very first photography workshops he led that would eventually lead to the formation of Visual Studies Workshop. These workshops began in 1959 and centered around "discussion concerning 'creative photography'" and the texts of György Kepes and László Moholy-Nagy . In 1968, Lyons proposed

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384-495: The " snapshot aesthetic " in his exhibition "Toward a Social Landscape" in 1966 that included the work of Bruce Davidson , Lee Friedlander, Danny Lyon , Duane Michals and Garry Winogrand and further explored the aesthetic in his lecture "Photography and the Picture Experience" regarding the snapshot as "authentic picture form." Lyons also organized the exhibitions The Persistence of Vision, , 1967, Photography in

416-622: The 1940s to the 1960s. VSW also holds the archives of Lejaren à Hiller who was an American illustrator and photographer and who is widely known for American photographic illustration. VSW holds the Portable Channel tape archive, over 900 magnetic tapes chronicling Rochester's history of grassroots activism and protest in the 1970s. Portable Channel supported community access to video equipment and training, and produced Homemade TV , which aired on WXXI-TV from 1972 through 1975. Afterimage: The Journal of Media Arts and Cultural Criticism

448-622: The Bruce Silverstein Gallery in 2014. WXXI-TV WXXI-TV (channel 21) is a PBS member television station in Rochester, New York , United States. It is owned by the WXXI Public Broadcasting Council alongside NPR members WXXI (1370 AM), WXXI-FM (105.9), and WXXO (91.5 FM). The three outlets share studios at 280 State Street near downtown Rochester; WXXI-TV's transmitter

480-701: The Collection of the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa. He published his first major book Notations in Passing: Visualized by Nathan Lyons in 1974. This book is the first instance of Lyons's creative exploration of the extended meaning forged from reading his photographs as diptychs contained within a larger sequence. In 1978 one of his images was included in the seminal exhibition "Mirrors and Windows" at MoMA. In 1987 he exhibited an early version of this series called Verbal Landscape at

512-522: The Twentieth Century, 1967, and Vision and Expression, 1969 at George Eastman House. In 1962, "recognizing the growing importance of photography at museums and university art departments, he organized a conference for curators and teachers that evolved into the Society for Photographic Education. The Society for Photographic Education is a nonprofit membership organization that provides

544-486: The artist John Wood who became his primary mentor and an influential force behind Lyons's creative practice. After graduating in 1957, Lyons began working for the George Eastman House as the director of public information and assistant editor of Image magazine. In 1960 he was appointed assistant director and began a series of exhibitions on the work of young contemporary photographers. At this time he

576-898: The book and was displayed at the Poindexter Gallery, New York. Six of Lyons's photographs were also included in the exhibition The Sense of Abstraction in Contemporary Photography at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York. In 1964 Lyons's photographs were included in the exhibition The Photographer's Eye at MoMA and the exhibition Photography in the Fine Arts IV at the Metropolitan Museum of Art , New York. In 1971 Lyons exhibited Notations in Passing, 1970: Photographs by Nathan Lyons from

608-497: The elusive character of the artists' books as a democratic multiple. These works are made by artists as books, first and foremost, and are produced to sell in an affordable market, though often only because of the generous subsidies which the Lyons and individual artists are able to generate to support their production. In American artists' books, VSW Press has had a tremendous influence, with work by figures who made major contributions to

640-444: The field having spun off from its graduate program or been directly produced under its auspices. VSW Press was founded by Joan Lyons in 1971. In 1984, Lyons edited the first anthology of critical essays and sources for the field of artists' books, Artists' books : a critical anthology and sourcebook . In the beginning, VSW first provided printing presses for artists to experiment with. VSW then began employing professionals to run

672-426: The largest collections of artists’ books in the northeast with around 27,000 prints from 19th century vernacular images to contemporary experimental works. The Soibelman Picture Agency Archives is also present with around 40,000 international press images from the 1920s and 30s. The collection also contains Joseph Selle's Fox Movie Flash Archive with an estimated 800,000 images of people on the streets of San Francisco in

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704-450: The workshop is Nathan Lyons, who founded it all in a dingy Rochester factory loft four years ago. Today, a group of seven faculty members and eighty students are working in an environment they hope may eventually serve as "a model of possibilities" for society at large. Their "community" is concerned with the relevance of the visual in our lives and the ways in which visual insights can be used. Starting in 1969, Visual Studies Workshop offered

736-774: Was a founding trustee of the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) and served as chair from 1976 to 1993. In 2008 he organized the retrospective exhibition John Wood: On the Edge of Clear Meaning, held at the International Center of Photography . In 1960 Lyons published the book Under the Sun: The Abstract Art of Camera Vision along with the artists Syl Labrot and Walter Chappell . An exhibition of works by all three artists accompanied

768-512: Was also a curator of photography and an associate director at the George Eastman House in Rochester, New York and, in 1969, founded the independent Visual Studies Workshop in Rochester, which established a course of study relating to the history and practice of the photographic art form and curatorial studies specifically pertaining to the medium of photography. He started the Society for Photographic Education , becoming its first chairman. He

800-444: Was also named the regional editor of Aperture magazine. In 1961 Lyons curated the exhibition "Seven Contemporary Photographers" that included the work of Ralph Eugene Meatyard and Ray K. Metzker . Lyons gave Lee Friedlander his first solo exhibition in 1963. Lyons's curatorial aim was to promote the notion of a photographer's distinct "point of view" and individual creative motivations. Additionally, Lyons validated and defined

832-446: Was founded in 1972 by Nathan Lyons. From its inaugural issue, the magazine aimed to pose "a challenge to existing centres of practice and education" as well as "to institutional hierarchies , widening the remit of art criticism and theoretical debate and engaging directly with context, community and issues of accountability ." Afterimage is a bi-monthly publication that was produced by Visual Studies Workshop from 1972 through 2018 and

864-687: Was held at George Eastman House. In 2001 Lyons retired from Visual Studies Workshop and began his series After 9/11, which he completed in 2003. In 2006 he exhibited his three completed series: Notations in Passing, Riding First Class on the Titanic! and After 9/11 in the exhibition, "Trilogy" at Bruce Silverstein Gallery , New York. In 2011 he published a text-image collaboration with the poet Marvin Bell entitled Whiteout. In 2013 he completed his fourth publication, Return Your Mind to Its Upright Position and exhibited works from all four of his series at

896-483: Was held at VSW in 2012 in conjunction with the opening of an exhibition by Hank Willis Thomas . Nathan Lyons, one of the original founders of SPE, spoke at the conference. VSW maintains both archival and research collections of photography, independent film and video, electronic imaging, visual books and the publication arts. The Research Center hosts the Independent Press Archive which is one of

928-564: Was interdisciplinary, with Lyons describing it as "a more collective activity." Later, the MFA program was transferred to SUNY Brockport , where it accepted new students until 2022. A diverse range of artists have taught at, published through, and stayed in-residence at VSW, including Jacki Apple , Ulises Carrión , Robert Frank , Eikoh Hosoe , Nam June Paik , Keith A. Smith , Buzz Spector, Carrie Mae Weems , and many others. The Society for Photographic Education (SPE) Northeast Chapter Conference

960-420: Was involved with various magazines, being assistant editor of Image, regional editor of Aperture , and founder of Afterimage . In 2000 Lyons received the International Center of Photography 's Infinity Award for Lifetime Achievement in photography. He died on 31 August 2016, aged 86. In 1945 Lyons became interested in photography after viewing a darkroom demonstration and he began to photograph with

992-459: Was originally a digital standard definition simulcast of WXXI-TV's analog signal. WXXI-TV discontinued regular programming on its analog signal, over UHF channel 21, on June 12, 2009, the official date on which full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 16, using virtual channel 21. As part of

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1024-516: Was the nation's longest-running instructional television program. Due to funding cuts, it was canceled and its last episode aired on May 23, 2013. ThinkBright , broadcast from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. on 21.3 until the digital transition. WXXI-TV entered the digital era in September 2003 when it signed on with Rochester's first full-power digital television signal. The station's signal is multiplexed : Channel 21.4, now PBS Kids since February 1, 2016,

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