Lucas Foglia
Lucas Foglia is an American photographer, living in San Francisco. "His work is concerned mainly with documenting people and their relationship to nature", for which he has travelled extensively making landscape photography and portraiture.
Foglia's Human Nature has been shown in solo exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago and at Foam Fotografiemuseum Amsterdam. His work is held in the collections of Denver Art Museum, MoCP, Philadelphia Museum of Art and Portland Art Museum.
Early life and education
Foglia was born on Long Island, New York. His parents were part of the back-to-the-land movement and he grew up on their farm, 30 miles from Manhattan. He received his BA from Brown University in 2005 and received his MFA from Yale School of Art, at Yale University, Connecticut in 2010.Work
Foglia's first two books A Natural Order and Frontcountry merge landscape photography and portraiture. According to Sean O'Hagan in The Guardian, the portraits in those books and in Human Nature, "occupy that tricky, slightly heightened hinterland between documentary and staging."A Natural Order "looked at people who lived off the grid in the American backwoods – drifters, Christian communities, back-to-the-land hippies, survivalists". It was made over five years and several long trips south in a camper van.
Frontcountry is a book of two halves, depicting the contrast between the contradictory lifestyles of ranching and mining in the contemporary American West. It was made between 2006 and 2013 in Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas and Wyoming.
Human Nature is "a series of vignettes about the relationship science, government, and individuals have with wilderness and nature."
Summer After contains black and white portraits of people that Foglia met on the street in New York City in 2002 in the wake of the September 11 attacks, after he moved to Manhattan.
Publications
Books by Foglia
- A Natural Order. Portland, OR: Nazraeli, 2012..
- Frontcountry. Portland, OR: Nazraeli, 2014..
- Human Nature. Paso Robles, CA: Nazraeli, 2017..
- Summer After. UK: Stanley/Barker, 2021..
- Constant bloom. Paso Robles, CA: Nazraeli, 2025.
Books with contributions by Foglia
- Core Samples from the World. New York: New Directions, 2011. By Forrest Gander.. Poetry and essays by Gander, photographs by Foglia, Raymond Meeks, Graciela Iturbide.
Solo exhibitions
- 2012. David Winton Bell Gallery of Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island. “A Natural Order”
- 2012. Les Rencontres d’Arles, Arles, France. “A Natural Order”
- 2012. Michael Hoppen Gallery, London, United Kingdom. “A Natural Order”
- 2013. Belfast Exposed, Belfast, Northern Ireland. “A Natural Order”
- 2013. Museum of Contemporary Art Denver, Denver, Colorado. “A Natural Order”
- 2013. Blue Sky Gallery, Portland, Oregon. “A Natural Order”
- 2013. Quinzaine Photographique Nantaise, Nantes, France. “A Natural Order”
- 2013. Athens Photo Festival, Athens, Greece. “A Natural Order”
- 2014. Fredericks & Freiser Gallery, New York, New York. “Frontcountry”
- 2014. Michael Hoppen Contemporary, London, United Kingdom. “Frontcountry”
- 2014. Robischon Gallery, Denver, Colorado. “Frontcountry”
- 2014. MiCamera, Milan, Italy. “Frontcountry”
- 2016. Jeonju International Photography Festival, Jeonju, South Korea. “A Natural Order”
- 2017. Michael Hoppen Contemporary, London, United Kingdom. “Human Nature”
- 2017. Fredericks & Freiser Gallery, New York, New York. “Human Nature”
- 2018. Foam Fotografiemuseum Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands. “Human Nature”
- 2018. Headlands Center for the Arts, Sausalito, California. “Human Nature”
- 2018. Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, Illinois. “Human Nature”
- 2021. Public Installation, Milan, Italy. “Human Nature”
- 2021. Photoclimat Biennale, Place du Palais Royal, Paris, France. “Human Nature”
- 2025. Fotomuseum Den Haag, The Hague, the Netherlands. “Constant bloom”
Awards
- 2006. Rhode Island State Council on the Arts, Aaron Siskind Fellowship in Photography
- 2007. Light Work, Artist in Residence
- 2008. Center for Photography at Woodstock, Photography Now
- 2008. Magenta Foundation, Flash Forward
- 2009. Photo District News, PDN 30
- 2012. Paris Photo–Aperture Foundation PhotoBook Awards, Shortlist
- 2014. Foam Talent
- 2014. Individual Photographer’s Fellowship, Aaron Siskind Foundation
- 2017. Syngenta Photography Award, Shortlist
- 2018. Headlands Center for the Arts, Artist in Residence
- 2019. Prix Pictet, Shortlist
Collections
Foglia's work is held in the following permanent collections:- Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation, Frankfurt, Germany: 12 Prints
- Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University, Stanford, CA: 10 Prints
- Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH: 7 Prints
- David Winton Bell Gallery of Brown University, Providence, RI: 88 Prints
- Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO: 13 Prints
- Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, MA: 3 Prints
- International Center for Photography New York, NY: 42 Prints
- Light Work, Syracuse, NY: 7 Prints
- Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA: 14 Prints
- Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, WI: 10 Prints
- Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, Illinois: 53 prints
- Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Houston, TX: 7 Prints
- Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: 8 prints
- Portland Art Museum, Portland, Oregon: 10 prints
- Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Providence, RI: 45 Prints
- San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA: 5 Prints
- Sheldon Museum of Art, Lincoln, NE: 6 Prints
- Comer Collection of Photography at University of Texas at Dallas, Dallas, TX: 6 Prints
- Victoria & Albert Museum, London, EN: 1 Print
- Center for Photography at Woodstock, Woodstock, NY: 1 Print