2022
Light Years
Generative photography
Light Years was developed in partnership with the Estate of László Moholy-Nagy. Cherniak used code to reconsider the photogram: an image made through light, shape, and exposure rather than a camera’s view of the world.
The project joins a generative system with photographic craft. Each of the one hundred compositions was transferred to a film negative. A scan became the digital artwork, while the negative also produced a silver gelatin print.
- Series
- 100 unique works
- Process works
- 30 unique works
- Medium
- Digital image and silver gelatin print
- Presented by
- Fellowship
The complete collection
100 variations
Explore the works in numerical order. Select any image for a closer look.
#001
#002
#003
#004
#005
#006
#007
#008
#009
#010
#011
#012
#013
#014
#015
#016
#017
#018
#019
#020
#021
#022
#023
#024
#025
#026
#027
#028
#029
#030
#031
#032
#033
#034
#035
#036
#037
#038
#039
#040
#041
#042
#043
#044
#045
#046
#047
#048
#049
#050
#051
#052
#053
#054
#055
#056
#057
#058
#059
#060
#061
#062
#063
#064
#065
#066
#067
#068
#069
#070
#071
#072
#073
#074
#075
#076
#077
#078
#079
#080
#081
#082
#083
#084
#085
#086
#087
#088
#089
#090
#091
#092
#093
#094
#095
#096
#097
#098
#099
#100No work with that number. Enter a number from 1 to 100.
The film
The Making of Light Years
Follow Dmitri Cherniak as he visits the Moholy-Nagy archives in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and Zurich, Switzerland, exploring László Moholy-Nagy’s life and work as part of the research behind Light Years.
Development
Thirty works along the way
The process works make the development of Light Years visible. Crossings and Ladders test line, spacing, and overlap; Dark Scribble, Glow Grids, and Groove explore density and light. Later groups include Pub Session and László, am I on the right track?
These thirty unique works were issued as a separate companion collection and offered to the first thirty selection-pass collectors. Shown here in token order, they trace ideas that precede and surround the finished series.
From code to paper
A photographic process
The physical works were printed onto film and then developed onto Ilford silver gelatin paper by Steve Rifkin and the team at Hank’s Photographic Services in New York. The prints measure 26 × 20 inches.
The transfer through a negative is part of the work’s construction. Code sets the composition; photographic materials give it another physical form.
Behind the work
Photographs
Public collections
Light Years in museum collections
Works from Light Years are held in the collections of the Buffalo AKG Art Museum, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and ZKM Karlsruhe.
Publication
Light Years, the book
The Light Years book brings the series into a cloth hardcover volume with a tipped-in photograph and exposed Swiss binding. Published by Fellowship and DLC Arts LLC.
Book credits
- Printing
- MAS Matbaa
- Published by
- Fellowship and DLC Arts LLC
- Graphic design
- Roberto Salazar
- Concept design, editing and sequencing
- Fernando Gallegos
On paper
Claimed prints
Each of the one hundred works has a corresponding silver gelatin print, claimed by its collector through Fellowship. These numbers identify the works whose prints have been claimed.
53 of 100 prints claimed
View claimed work numbers
- #001
- #002
- #003
- #006
- #007
- #008
- #009
- #015
- #017
- #018
- #019
- #022
- #025
- #026
- #027
- #031
- #032
- #036
- #037
- #038
- #039
- #040
- #044
- #046
- #048
- #051
- #052
- #053
- #056
- #059
- #060
- #061
- #062
- #064
- #065
- #068
- #069
- #072
- #073
- #074
- #075
- #078
- #080
- #081
- #083
- #087
- #090
- #092
- #093
- #095
- #097
- #098
- #099
Checked against Fellowship’s artwork selection on 23 September 2026.
View the artwork selection Claim a printShown at
Exhibitions
- Dimensions of Digitization2024 · CCAM at Yale, New Haven · Group · Light Years #17
- Light Years2022 · Paris Photo · Fair · Twelve gelatin silver prints