Lara Shipley Named 2026 Guggenheim Fellow, Discusses Photography and 'The Age of Loneliness'
The 101st class of Fellows has been revealed by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, which chose 223 recipients from nearly 5,000 submissions across 55 fields. Among those selected for the 2026 cohort is Lara Shipley, an American photographer and Associate Professor at Michigan State University. Her artistic focus is on themes of extinction and isolation, with her work displayed at the National Museum of Women in the Arts and the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. Shipley has authored three photobooks, including Desire Lines (2023) and Devil's Promenade (2021). In a conversation on July 2, 2026, she described receiving the fellowship as 'mind blowing' and intends to allocate the stipend towards her project, The Age of Loneliness, which investigates ecological isolation in wolves.
Key facts
- The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation announced its 101st class of Fellows, comprising 223 individuals across 55 disciplines.
- Lara Shipley is an American photographer and Associate Professor of Photography at Michigan State University.
- Shipley holds an MFA in Photography from Arizona State University and a Bachelors in Photojournalism from the University of Missouri.
- Her work has been exhibited at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, the National Museum of Women in the Arts, and the Dayton Art Institute, among others.
- She has published three photobooks: Devil's Promenade (2021), Desire Lines (2023), and The Naked Truth (2026).
- The Naked Truth and Devil's Promenade were made with artist Antone Dolezal.
- Shipley's project The Age of Loneliness focuses on wolves in northern Minnesota, the only lower-48 population never completely eradicated.
- She will participate in a book signing at Polycopies in Paris in 2026.
Entities
Artists
- Lara Shipley
- Antone Dolezal
- Deanna Dikeman
- Edward Hirsch
- Simon Guggenheim
Institutions
- John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation
- Rifugio Digitale
- Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art
- Dayton Art Institute
- National Museum of Women in the Arts
- Museum of Modern Art Library
- Whitney Museum of American Art Library
- Smithsonian American Art Museum Library
- Museum of Contemporary Photography
- Overlapse Books
- Yogurt Editions
- The New Yorker
- Harper's Magazine
- British Journal of Photography
- The Atlantic
- Vice
- NPR
- Arizona State University
- University of Missouri
- Michigan State University
- Polycopies
- Lenscratch
Locations
- Florence
- Italy
- Kansas City
- Missouri
- Dayton
- Ohio
- Washington, DC
- Denmark
- Greece
- Guatemala
- Chicago
- Minnesota
- Detroit
- Paris
- United States