For four years, Berkeley-based photographer/activist Lucas Foglia traveled the U.S., taking pictures of people involved in religious or spiritual rituals in nature. The result, a portfolio of images titled American Prayer: Photographs by Lucas Foglia, will be on display at Berkeley’s Doug Adams Gallery Sept. 5-Dec. 13.
“I wanted to learn how to communicate with people of faith about environmentalism. The people I photographed share the belief that nature is both our salvation and our responsibility,” Foglia said.
The portfolio includes examples from all of the major religions practiced in the United States. “Each of the major world religions includes a story of someone going to a wild place and communicating with the divine,” Foglia said. “Moses climbed Mount Sinai; the Buddha sat under the bodhi tree; Muhammad meditated in the Cave of Hira.”
During his odyssey, Foglia stood waist-deep off the Georgia coast as a preacher baptized Christian believers, spent Passover with a Jewish community in the arid land near Death Valley, attended a Hindu retreat in the West Virginia mountains and followed a group of Muslim women learning to backpack in the Sierra Nevadas, who stopped to press their foreheads against the rocky ground in daily prayers.
Elizabeth Peña, the director of the Doug Adams Gallery, curated the exhibit. Mutual connections at the Center for Climate Justice and Faith, who are co-sponsoring the exhibit along with California Interfaith Power & Light, introduced her to Foglia and his work a year ago. “His work is stunning, and a good fit for our space,” she said. “Quite a few scholars [are now focusing] on eco-spirituality, and this was a good opportunity to talk about climate change and creating sacred spaces.”
Many, if not most people, she agreed, have come across places that spoke to them spiritually. When this happens, it’s possible to have “a transformational experience. We all share this in common,” she said. What is special about the Doug Adams Gallery, she noted, is that it not only doesn’t shy away from art sparking conversations about art and spirituality, but has a mission to encourage those conversations.
One of Foglia’s stated missions for the photos is to make them accessible to those wishing to create their own sacred spaces. Rather than incorporating them into a coffee table book, Peña said, they are available in the loose-leaf portfolio, so that individuals and groups can use them in that way.
Said Foglia, “The 18 photographs are printed on heavyweight art paper—unbound, so the book can become an exhibition, emphasizing both the connectedness and the individuality of the communities being portrayed.” He is also giving copies of the photographs to national faith-based organizations to use for environmental advocacy.
Asked if she finds one photograph especially moving, Peña praised the diversity of all the photos but pointed to one of a person by herself in a waterfall. She said she hopes viewers of the exhibit will leave with an increased appreciation for “the variety of sacred experiences that happen in nature.”
Both Peña and Foglia also referred to the election season and a time of disunity in the United States, as well as how they felt the message of the collection speaks to a common need and longing.
“You can see the scope of America … the beauty and the diversity of its people,” Peña said.
“In a divided time across the country, American Prayer points to all of our common ground—a graceful reminder of our need to care for the world and each other,” Foglia said.
The gallery will host an opening event on Sept. 5, and is planning at least two other events during the exhibit’s run—possibly talks with Foglia, and in conjunction with environmental groups. For more information on dates and time, check the gallery’s website.
‘American Prayer: Photographs by Lucas Foglia,’ Sept. 5-Dec. 13, Doug Adams Gallery, Center for Arts & Religion at the Graduate Theological Union, 2400 Ridge Rd., Berkeley. Open Tue-Fri, 10am-4pm. 510.649.2470. www.gtu.edu/events/exhibitions/doug-adams-gallery
