We are honored to present the following artists to you:

Neil Chowdhury uses the camera to explore the relationships between individuals, their societies, and environments in several countries, concentrating his efforts on exploring his heritage in India. He has been awarded the 2011 Light Work Grant, and the 2005 SPE Gary Fritz Imagemaker Award. His photography and digital video works have been exhibited widely in the United States and abroad. He has been invited to speak about his work in Norway, Dubai, Hungary, India, and in the US. His works are included in the permanent collections of the William Benson Museum of Art, Light Work Community Darkrooms, the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago, The Gershwin Hotel, NYC, and the National Gallery of Macedonia. He has participated in artist residencies in several countries. Mr. Chowdhury is director of the photography program at Cazenovia College and has also taught at Zayed University, the College for Creative Studies, and the University of Washington, where he received his MFA.

Bob Gates studied photography at the University of Iowa School of Art and the Santa Fe Photography Workshops.  His photographs have won numerous awards and have appeared in individual, group, and juried exhibitions in Central New York and elsewhere.  His work has been published in PhotoLife, The Photo Review, National Geographic Traveler, Popular Photography Diffusion Magazine, Photographers Forum, f-stop, File Magazine, Plates to Pixels, Dossier Journal and other magazines.

Paul W. Pearce lives and works in the house where he grew up, in Mattydale, NY. He was drafted into the army and was commissioned as a Lieutenant in the Artillery. He fought in the central highlands of Vietnam in 1968 and 1969. He completed his MA in Art (Printmaking and Photography) at SUNY Oswego where he currently teaches Photography in the Art department. As a staff member of the Syracuse Peace Council, he worked in their print shop (SPC Press) and coordinated their cable TV program, “The People’s 60 Minutes” (SPC-TV) for over twenty years. He was a co-director of Altered Space gallery in Syracuse, NY. His work has been exhibited locally and nationally. He was awarded grants from Light Work in 1981 and 2008. This is his third Everson Biennial exhibit.

Ben Altman took winding road to being an artist. He grew up in rural and coastal England, studied Physics at University College London, and worked in the North Sea, Greenland, and Labrador. He moved to Los Angeles in 1980.  In Chicago, Ben pursued commercial photography and sailboats – racing, sail design, drafting of rules, boat deliveries, and, at a boatyard, operating cranes and other heavy machinery.  Ben’s art grew out of his lifelong involvement with photography. He now incorporates three-dimensional mixed-media, elaborate rigging, and video. He invites audiences to operate, mark, or change his pieces. Ben is a member of the 2×2 Collective.