Rising Stars: Meet Luca Varano of Los Angeles

Today we’d like to introduce you to Luca Varano.

Hi Luca, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I have always been drawn to visual media and to the ways images shape how we understand ourselves. Studying photography at the Rhode Island School of Design gave me the space to focus that interest and develop a practice centered on narrative image making and queer history. My work looks at how identity, intimacy, and landscape interact, often through film photography and through scenes that sit between presence and absence.

Series like “Cruising in the West” helped define the direction of my practice. That project examines how queer people create traces of connection in environments marked by silence or erasure. It also taught me how to build long form work that grows through research, observation, and collaboration.

I am now based in Los Angeles, where I maintain a commercial studio practice alongside my fine art work. The studio allows me to expand the technical side of my practice while supporting client projects, productions, and ongoing collaborations. The path has come from consistency and curiosity, but mostly from wanting to make images that feel honest and rooted in the world I am part of.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
It hasn’t always been smooth. I could talk about the struggles that come with growing up queer, but that isn’t the core of my work or my businesses. If anything, I think the queer community has some of the strongest business sense and work ethic I’ve ever seen, and that shaped me more than anything else.

Some challenges were practical, like learning how to get honest feedback and actually hear it. I was trained to take critique seriously, even when the work deals with personal subjects, and that discipline carried into every part of my practice. You learn to separate ego from the work, stay open, and let criticism push the work forward. That’s been one of the harder but more valuable parts of the process.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I work in photography across fine art and commercial settings. My projects focus on queer intimacy, masculinity, and the relationship between the body and the places it moves through. I also maintain a commercial studio practice where I handle client work, production, and the day to day needs of a working studio.

I shoot mostly on medium format film. The slower pace of that process shapes how I work. It forces me to pay attention, be patient, and let images build over time instead of rushing them. That rhythm guides both my personal projects and my studio work.

I’m proud of the care that goes into the images. Nothing is made casually. Most of the work comes from long research, conversation, and time spent understanding the people and spaces involved. What sets me apart is the combination of a solid studio foundation with a film based practice that stays focused on intention and craft. The two sides keep the work grounded and consistent without trying to be louder than it needs to be

Can you talk to us about how you think about risk?
My view on risk is pretty grounded. I don’t see much value in holding back out of fear. Most of the things we call risks are really just decisions with unknown outcomes. You try something, maybe it works, maybe it doesn’t, and either way you learn something you wouldn’t have learned by staying still. That’s how most of my work has grown. I follow an idea, push it, test it, and if it falls apart, I adjust and move on.

I’ve never been precious about experimenting. A lot of my practice comes from trying things that might not land and being fine with that. Some of the best shifts in my work came from moments where I wasn’t sure if something would work but did it anyway. Even outside the art side of things, running a studio, taking on clients, building a business… none of that works without accepting that some decisions won’t pan out the way you thought they would.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://lucavarano.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/varano.co?igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ%3D%3D&utm_source=qr
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/luca-varano-7093a6269?utm_source=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=member_ios
• Twitter: https://x.com/varanoco?s=21

Image Credits
All images were photographed by me, Luca Varano.