Lara Jo Regan's career as a photographer has been uncommon and diverse, achieving serious acclaim and respect across several disciplines. With a background in anthropology, journalism, fine art and film, Regan’s work combines painterly aesthetics with closely observed behavioral studies and social commentary, a signature style she has applied to everything from impoverished Appalachians to the Hollywood elite. Her interpretive coverage of American culture has been regularly commissioned and published by many of the world’s leading magazines such as Time, Newsweek, Life, and is widely collected an exhibited. She is the recipient of many of her field’s highest honors, including the coveted World Press Photo of the Year.

Ironically, Regan also became known for creating a cultural phenomenon rather than covering one, as the artist behind the famed Mr.Winkle photo collection. Featured in books, calendars and collected artwork, the whimsical images transformed her otherworldly canine muse (a rescued stray) into an internationally renowned and respected cult icon. This bizarre but moving odyssey motivated Regan’s first foray into filmmaking to capture the many surreal aspects of the experience beyond the still image.  This along with further studies in abstract expressionism and installation art influenced the technical and narrative conception of her subsequent photographic projects that evolved into more cinematic and non-objective schemes.

Major articles about Regan’s work have appeared in dozens of prominent publications including The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, the Philadelphia Inquirer, The Chicago Tribune and USA Today.  She has also been a featured guest on many television broadcasts such as CNN, the BBC and The Today Show numerous times.

Regan grew up in the suburbs of Detroit and Philadelphia, and is now a long-time resident of Southern California whose human and cultural landscape she has been documenting for over twenty years.

 

Education

University of Colorado, Boulder, B.A., 1987
Majors:  Anthropology, Communication Arts and Theory

Selected Exhibitions  
Solo Shows and Exhibitions of Major Works

2012 Object of Projection, A Retrospective, Utah Museum of Contemporary Art, Salt Lake City                                     2011 Drive-Thru, Visual Journalism, Irvine Fine Art Center, Irvine, CA, curated by Carl Berg                                      2011 One Night Stand, Beacon Art Center, Los Angeles, CA, curated by Doug Harvey, Michael Arata                       2010 Drive-Thru, Kopeikin Gallery, Los Angeles
2009 Dreamland Ubiquities, Randall Scott Gallery, New York
2009 Dreamland Ubiquities, Pulse Art Fair, Miami 
2009 UNHCR, Global Immigration, Open Air Exhibition, Cyprus 
2008 REDCAT, Los Angeles (film screening)  
2007 Los Angeles County Museum of Art (film screening)                                                                                           2006 Comic-Con, San Diego (film screening)
2005 Mr. Winkle Hotel-Motel Series, Icon Gallery, Los Angeles
2002 A Street in America, Photokina, UberLeben im Alltage , Berlin, Germany
2001 Life Work Retrospective, World Press Photo Foundation, Amsterdam
1998 Behind Oscar's Back, Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences and Academy Foundation, Los Angeles
1996 Behind Oscar's Back, Visa Pour L’Image, Perpignan, France
1993 Squat Cultures of Homeless Youths in Hollywood, Lindhurst Gallery, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, Department of Cultural Affairs
1992 Unplanned Portraits, Randall Scott TBA Gallery, Los Angeles

Honors, Awards


2008 American Photography Annual 
2007 National Coalition for Quality in Children’s Media, Best Short Film, 2007
2004 American Photography Annual 
2003 Communication Arts, Award of Excellence
2001 World Press Photo Foundation, World Press Photo of the Year 
2001 World Press Photo Foundation, First Place
2000 Pictures of the Year, National Press Photographer's Association
2000 American Photography Annual
2000 Communication Arts, Award of Excellence
1999 American Photography Annual
1998 American Photography Annual
1996 Communication Arts, Award of Excellence
1995 Pictures of the Year, National Press Photographer's Association
1995 Communication Arts, Award of Excellence 

Selected Press


OC Weekly, Dave Barton, Review, Cover Story Arts, October 28, 2011                                                                          The Los Angeles Times, Donnell Alexander, Review, February 14, 2008
The Seattle Times, John Harti, Review, January 19, 2008
NY ARTS, James Scarborough, Review, March/April 2006, Vol.11, No.1/2
Things As They Are: Photojournalism in Context Since 1955, Mary Panzer, 2005
Photographic, Lynn Iodice, Career Profile Feature, January 2005
Saint Louis Post Dispatch, Sarah Casey Newman, Feature, September 6, 2003 
The Houston Chronicle, Bettijane Levine, Life and Entertainment, Cover Feature, August 25, 2003
The Denver Post, Elena A. Jefferson, The Scene, Cover Feature, August 5, 2003
The Detroit Free Press, Feature, August 8, 2003
The San Francisco Chronicle, Neva Chonin, Datebook, Cover Feature, July 23, 2003 
The Los Angeles Times, Bettijane Levine, Calendar, Cover Feature, July 12, 2003
The Chicago Sun Times, Misha Davenport, Feature, June 13, 2003
The San Diego Tribune, John Wilkens, Currents, Cover Story, September 5, 2002
The Today Show, NBC, Featured Guest Interview, June 12, 2002
The Cleveland Plain Dealer, Karen Sandstrom, Arts and Life, Cover Story, June 3, 2002 
The New York Times, Julie Iovine, Feature, January 20, 2002
Reporter Ohne Grenzen, e.V., 2002 – Berlin - Uberleben im Alltag, 10 Forografinnen fur die Pressefreiheit, Thomas Abel, Feature
The Today Show, NBC, Feature Guest Interview, December 14, 2001 
TVAsahi – Japan - Feature Story, December 17, 2001
USA Today, Marco della Cava, Feature, December 3, 2001
New York Newsday, Denise Laim, Feature, August 30, 2001
The Sacramento Bee, Cynthia Hubert, The Scene, Cover Story, July 13, 2001
De Journalist – Amsterdam - Herman Hoenveld, Cover Story, April 2001
PRESS Magazine – Warsaw, Poland - Oczy Spoteczenstwa, Feature, April Issue, 2001
Dinsdag - Amsterdam - Bert Verhoeff, Feature, April 24, 2001 
The London Independent, Andrew Gumbel, Friday Review, Cover Feature, March 23, 2001
China Photo Press, Feature, February 20, 2001
CNN TV, Feature Story, February 2001
ABC Evening News, Feature Segment, January 2001 
The Dallas Morning News, Michael Precker, Living, Cover Feature, October 24, 2000
The Los Angeles Times, Dennis Arp, Feature, September 22, 2000
Photo District News, Carol Lachnit, Feature, March 1999 issue
The Philadelphia Inquirer Magazine, Karen Heller, Feature, March 22, 1998
The Today Show, NBC, Feature Interview, February 19, 1998 
KTLA Morning News, Interview, January 22, 1998
ABC Evening News, Feature Segment, January 22, 1998
The Los Angeles Times, Kristine McKenna, Feature/Review, Calendar Weekend, Cover Story, Weekend, January 15, 1998
The Los Angeles Daily News, Reed Johnson, L.A. Life, Cover Story January 15, 2008
The BBC, Interview, January, 2008
The Philadelphia Inquirer, Steven Rea, Feature, March 23, 1997
A&L Magazine, Len Leer, Cover Story, January 23, 1997
VSD magazine – France – Jean Pierre Cerquant, Feature, September 1996
PHOTO magazine – France – Feature, September, 1996
American Photo magazine, Stephanie Dolgoff, L.A.’s New Talent, January/February issue, 1993

Selected Collections

World Press Photo Foundation                                                                                                                              Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences                                                                                                             Los Angeles County Museum of Art

 

Throughout childhood I rarely spoke, suffering from a disorder now officially labeled, “selective mutism.” So I spent pathetically long periods of time observing instead of interacting, no doubt setting the foundation for a documentarian’s mind. When I discovered photography as a pre-teen, it was a welcome form of connection and communication on another plane. I could say what I was thinking and feeling about the world without words. At that point I’d built up plenty to say.

Since then, social and cultural commentary has been the driving force behind my work, along with the challenge of presenting it through beautiful and arresting imagery. I was fortunate to have this abiding addiction heavily subsidized for many years by commissions from great American magazines, work that transported me - physically, mentally and artistically - to places I would otherwise not have gone. For that, I am eternally grateful.

Years later after venturing into filmmaking and exposure to a great deal of conceptual and abstract art, I grew intensely interested in examining ways to extend documentary photography into these new realms, while still preserving its essential function of inciting alternative contemplation of the real world. I remain drawn to real-world subjects, especially ubiquitous and mundane cultural manifestations whose meaning and beauty has become nullified by collective complacency.

How and why I make pictures has shape-shifted throughout my life in reaction to new influences, experiences and needs, but the still photograph has remained for me above all else a pool of reflection and meditation, a way to look more deeply into the essence of things and seek greater truths.

-Lara Jo Regan