Geographical Lore

My photographic work explores the relationship between landscape, memory, and environmental change. My ongoing project, Geographical Lore, investigates geological formations and coastal waterways, using photographic images as source material that I print, cut, fold, layer, and re-photograph to create constructed environments. Through this iterative process, I examine the tension between documentation and invention, and the ways photography can transform from a record into a physical and symbolic object.

About the Artist

Julianna Foster is a Philadelphia artist and educator, her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally and featured in publications including Lenscratch, Create Magazine, Conveyor Magazine and the book, Constructed: The Contemporary History of the Constructed Image in Photography since 1990 published by Routledge Press. She is the recipient of a LensCulture Critics’ Choice Award. Foster has held teaching positions at institutions including Dartmouth College, Moore College of Art and former, University of the Arts where she earned the President’s Distinguished Teaching Award. Her practice is informed by research into geology, folklore, and environmental change, and reflects an ongoing interest in how landscapes shape, and are shaped by time, memory, and human presence.