Focusing his lens on our relationship to nature, San Francisco-based photographer Lucas Foglia uses his camera to create narratives that are at once captivating, nuanced and compassionate.
In his latest photobook, Constant Bloom, Lucas Foglia’s images – accompanied by texts in English, French and Arabic – chronicle the immense annual journey (the longest butterfly migration yet discovered) of the painted lady from Africa through the Middle East to Europe in search of blooming wildflowers. These delicate creatures are pictured crossing sun-baked deserts, ocean waves and misty mountain ranges on their quest, each butterfly only surviving a quarter of the journey, laying eggs along the way so that the next generation can continue the flight.
Also captured in Foglia’s pictures are the many people who continue to be displaced by unseasonal floods, droughts and freezes – the climate refugees’ movement matching that of the migrating butterflies, echoing their perilous search for sustenance and shelter. The images are a moving reminder that our survival is inextricably linked with the natural world.
The same harsh, unpredictable weather that is driving families from their homes and across the globe also makes wildflowers scarce and the time and location of their blooming uncertain. The butterflies rely on blossoms planted by humans in our parks and gardens. Our lives and fates intertwine as they depend on our horticulture, which in turn depends on the pollination they provide on their travels.
Through Foglia’s photographs, the painted lady’s migration becomes a poignant allegory for connection across borders, holding up a mirror to humanity’s indelible interdependence with our environment and all the creatures in it. A shared fragility, resilience and perseverance.
Photography by Lucas Foglia; lucasfoglia.com
Polly Rappaport is a writer and copy editor.
