Human Nature, the last book by American photographer Lucas Foglia, begins and ends with interpretations of paradise. The narrative of the book unfolds through sequences of photographs—moving through cities, forests, farms, deserts, ice fields, and oceans. Along the way, scientists work to quantify and understand our relationship with the natural world, measuring how we change nature and how spending time in wild spaces changes us.
Both factual and lyrical, the series is a celebration of the curious. At times funny, sad or sensual, the images illuminate the human need to connect with nature and to the wildness in ourselves. Foglia’s work is driven by a desire to understand the conflicting forces of modernity and nature; how we manipulate the earth to sap its resources, and how some seek to restore it. Human Nature revisits themes established in previous books A Natural Order and Frontcountry, but on a broader, global scale.
Foglia writes: “I grew up on a small farm in the suburbs, thirty miles east of New York City. The forest that bordered the farm was my childhood wilderness, a wild place to play that was ignored by our neighbors who commuted to Manhattan. In 2012, Hurricane Sandy flooded our fields and blew down the oldest trees in the woods. On the news, scientists linked the storm to climate change caused by human activity. I realized that if humans are changing the weather, then there is no place on earth unaltered by people.”
Lucas Foglia, Human Nature
Published by Nazraeli Press
$60
