Explore landscapes redefined by human influence

Beach restoration after El Niño waves, California 2016.
Barn, California 2011.
Trees marked for cutting after a wildfire, National Park Service, California 2015.
Controlled burn, California 2015.
Kate in an EEG study of cognition in the wild, Strayer Lab, University of Utah, Utah 2015.
Kenzie in a crevasse, Juneau icefield research program, Alaska 2016.
Elk at the Game and Fish Department, Wyoming 2010.
Charles looking at the sun, Space Weather Prediction Center, Colorado 2016.
Chuck taking sample readings at the geysers, the world’s largest geothermal field, California 2015.
Chance and Patrick launching an ozonesonde balloon, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Colorado 2016.
Michael gleaning cotton, Texas 2006.
Alicia clearing land for farming, California 2012.
Oranges, California 2011.
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A few pages into Human Nature, photographer Lucas Foglia writes, “I realized that if humans are changing the weather, then every living plant and animal has already been affected by people.” Foglia’s theory, which is becoming clearer with climate change, became a photographic prompt: If no square foot of Earth is untouched by human influence, then the variety of our collisions with nature is intensified — we devastate the environment, but we also create odd, funny, joyful and aspirational interactions, too. Foglia’s crisp, still images capture this broad spectrum of emotion. Oregon forest workers clear-cut trees planted only decades ago; a woman wearing an electrode cap sits at the edge of a sandstone canyon; a technician stares at the sun’s image in Colorado’s Space Weather Prediction Center; young children awkwardly make eye contact, surrounded by cattle on a Nevada ranch. In Foglia’s world, we haven’t killed nature; rather, we’ve redefined its possible reach.

Human Nature, By Lucas Foglia
92 pages, hardcover: $60
Nazraeli Press, 2017

This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Explore landscapes redefined by human influence.

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