“A City is a Language” by Photographer Shane Lavalette
Shane Lavalette is an American photographer, independent publisher, and the director of Light Work, a non-profit photography organization in Syracuse, New York.
He holds a BFA from Tufts University in partnership with The School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Lavalette’s photographs have been shown widely, including exhibitions at the High Museum of Art, Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University, Aperture Foundation, Montserrat College of Art, The Carpenter Center for Visual Arts at Harvard University, The Center for Photography at Woodstock, Kaunas Gallery, Le Château d’Eau, Fotostiftung Schweiz, Musée de l’Elysée, and Robert Morat Galerie, in addition to being held in private and public collections.
Intersected by Interstate 81, the city of Syracuse has been shaped by the highway’s existence since its construction more than fifty years ago. Published as a monograph by Kris Graves Projects, the series considers the lasting impact of I-81 on the people of Syracuse. Writer Arthur Flowers elaborates, in the accompanying text for the book:
“Shane Lavalette photographs with a quiet urgency that considers the implications of urban planning decisions, the voices those affected in the process, the economic and racial divides shaped by the inherent politics of architecture, and the search for connectedness and hope that is present none the less.”
See more from “A City is a Language” below.
