Domenico Foschi - LENSCRATCH

Domenico Foschi by Aline SmithsonSeptember 16, 2011

I grew up in Los Angeles, left it for many years to live in New York City, and returned to raise my family. I have been all over this city, and feel like there are very few stones unturned, but discovering the work of Domenico Foschi, I am humbled by his ability to see this city in a way that is remarkable, compelling, and unique. Domenico looks at the everyman, the mechanic, the lovers, the homeless, the barista, the businessman with the same curiosity and reverence. The images are timeless, timely and evocative.

Domencio was born in Bari, Italy and now lives in Los Angeles. Unable to afford a formal photographic education, he used books to study the masters: Coburn, Steichen, Stieglitz, Stand, Avedon, Penn to name a few. He went on to work as a freelance commercial photographer in Ravenna but moved to Los Angeles over twenty years ago to pursue his fine art. His work has appeared in View Camera, Black & White, Silvershotz, and numerous other magazines, and has exhibited at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and galleries around the world.

Photography and my personal growth are intertwined. After two decades of commitment with large format photography that requires a paced and meditative method, I have decided to return to a more instinctual approach using 35 mm cameras.
In the past I had chosen to photograph static subjects in isolation, now I allow myself to the abandon of life’s rhythm, and seek Beauty in the energy of people’s existence.

My aim with this work is not to highlight specific social issues, as much as to explore the universality of the human condition as I sense the spiritual thread that underscores Life in its breadth. A bank employee’s alienated gaze, a couple’s body language, a mysterious structure wrapped by a tarp on a lawn, can all strike a cord in my psychological make-up and compel me to photograph.