Moving off the Grid ~ Lucas Foglia

I went to several art openings last Friday night in Chicago. The David Weinberg gallery (which I sadly learned will be closing it's doors in March 2011) had a wonderful exhibition of the Yale University School of Art 2010 MFA Photography Candidates. I don't know what it is about that school but they turn out some extraordinary artists, one if which is Lucas Foglia.

Patrick and Anakeesta, Tennessee 2007

I saw this breathtaking photograph which I find incredibly beautiful and disturbing. I could spend hours contemplating it's meaning. I returned home that night and opened my latest Aperture Magazine and not surprisingly, Foglia's work was featured. With all that is going on in the world today, one does wonder what it would be like to live "off the grid."

Foglia's artist statment...

"Since 2006 I have traveled throughout the southeastern United States, befriending, photographing, and interviewing a network of people who left cities and suburbs to live off the grid. Motivated by environmental concerns, religious beliefs, or predictions of economic collapse, my subjects build their homes from local materials, obtain their water from nearby springs, and hunt, gather, or grow their own food.

All the people in my photographs are working to maintain a self-sufficient lifestyle, but no one I found lives in complete isolation from the mainstream. Many of my subjects have websites that they update using laptop computers, and cell phones that they charge on car batteries or solar panels. They do not wholly reject the modern world. Instead, they step away from it and choose the parts that they want to bring with them. "


Pixie and Kyd's Duet, Falling Leaves Rendezvous, Georgia 2007

Homeschooling, Tennessee 2008

Bear, Shot by a Neighbor, Kevin's Land, Virginia 2008

Valerie and the Shadow, Tennessee 2008

Andrew and Taurin Drinking Raw Goat's Milk, Tennessee 2009

National Geographic, Wildroots Homestead, North Carolina 2008