Lucas Murnaghan Water Photography

Name: Lucas Murnaghan Water Photography
Address: Toronto, ON, CA
Telephone: +14167228757
Price range: $$$

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Lucas Murnaghan Water Photography

1975–2021
MD, Fine Art Water Photographer
Estate managed by Antonio Lennert He has now traveled to four continents, shooting in major breaks around the globe.

Lucas Murnaghan is a Toronto-based photographer focusing on images that involve water and its surroundings. His early work focused primarily on surf and adventure photography, and he has always preferred to immerse himself in his environment leading to shooting from within the water. Surf brand sponsorships brought opportunities to shoot in-water photographic coverage for major international compe

titions, including the Rip Curl Pro Tofino and WSL Soup Bowl Pro. He has published his work in numerous publications and has staged two gallery shows. His love of photography has further evolved into fine art and editorial work in the underwater realm, and he has worked with several brands, subjects, and locations to create evocative and ethereal images. An accomplished triathlete and free diver himself, he works without additional SCUBA equipment, allowing him a deeper connection to his subject. This personal and organic approach allows for greater versatility in his shoots and a heightened level of intimacy to the finished product. Murnaghan brings a fresh eye to a challenging medium and takes his audience with him, below the surface, to see things from a novel perspective.

08/08/2026

Cody Oehm's arms are held out and bent at the elbow, legs together, the same stabilizing stance a skydiver holds mid-fall. Nothing in his body is straining against the water. He's simply letting himself fall, and holding his form while he does it.

Lucas made this image freediving in the Bruce Peninsula, working underwater on his own breath alongside Cody rather than shooting from above. He built most of his titles around the emotion an image already carried rather than spelling it out, and this one, called Free Yourself, holds both control and surrender in the same frame.

Editions of this piece live in collections in California, Colorado, and Paris, and Toronto.

Free Yourself is available as editioned art. Message us for details.

08/02/2026

Jacob Reinhard sat down on the steps of a Fort Lauderdale pool and, for a moment, stopped paying attention to the camera.

Lucas called the image The Truth Lies Within. Nothing about it was staged to look this way. Jacob is simply sitting with himself, chin against his hand, and Lucas was there to see it happen.

He once said that perhaps by losing our way in the water, we can find ourselves again. That idea runs through most of his work, but it's rarely as visible as it is in this one image, a man who has stopped performing and settled into his own thoughts.

The photograph is part of the same body of work as Beneath the Surface, the book that first brought seventy of these moments together in one place.

One copy of the second edition remains. When it sells, this edition is complete.

www.lucasmurnaghan.com/book/p/beneath-the-surface-photo-book-2nd-edition

07/26/2026

Some photographs arrive quietly. This is one of them.

Lucas made this image of Derek Macaulay. Derek has said that he's often felt out of place, a misfit, an outsider, and that being submerged in a quiet world with Lucas let him sink away from his anxieties and his messy thoughts.

Lucas had an instinct for that kind of moment, the one after the pose drops and something more honest comes through. He was patient enough to wait for it every time, and that patience runs through the full body of work now held in the Lucas Murnaghan archive.

For collectors and art enthusiasts who want to stay close to that archive as it grows, the Collectors Club is where that happens.

lucasmurnaghan.com/collectors-club

07/19/2026

'Free Your Mind' was made on a stretch of the Bruce Peninsula that Lucas returned to summer after summer. The cove could only be reached by paddling, boards and camera gear balanced across the water, no shortcut in or out.

These expeditions were planned with real care. Lucas and I scouted the site ahead of time and worked out the day around the water and the light. Before anyone got in, we spent time with the subject on breathing and staying calm, so there was trust built before the camera ever came out. George Kopas, a friend from Toronto, was the subject that day. 'Carved From the Same Stone' was made on that same stretch of coastline, the same morning, once Lucas found the light he was after.

An edition of 'Free Your Mind' was later donated to SNAP, a fundraising auction in Toronto supporting the AIDS Committee of Toronto. It sold for $4,200 CAD, with proceeds going directly to the organization's work in the city.

This edition remains part of the archive.
Print availability and enquiries at [email protected]

www.lucasmurnaghan.com

07/12/2026

Wherever You May Go. Trey Golden, Twin Falls, Washington.

Lucas worked without SCUBA on every shoot. Before anyone entered the water, he would work with his subjects on land, using breathwork and stillness to prepare, until they were ready. There was always a moment underwater when everything settled. That was when he made his best images. This is one of them.

Trey Golden is a visual artist based in Seattle. This piece was part of SNAP 2023, a live auction benefiting people living with HIV and AIDS in Toronto, where it sold for CAD$4,000.

Print availability and enquiries at [email protected]

www.lucasmurnaghan.com

07/04/2026

Lucas's archive has found its way into homes across many countries, and we're always curious where it might go next.

We've been thinking about where this work could travel for an exhibition. If you could see Lucas's work shown anywhere in the world, where would it be? Tag a friend who'd want to see it too.

07/01/2026

Happy Canada Day!
Lucas was a Toronto-born photographer, raised in Ottawa, who trained as an orthopaedic surgeon before building a body of work that has since travelled well beyond the pools and waters where it began. The country shaped him long before the water did, and that beginning still runs through everything in the archive.

If you'd like to learn more about Lucas, his work, and the story behind it, you can find it all on the website www.lucasmurnaghan.com.

06/18/2026

Lucas had a particular kind of restlessness behind the camera. He was always asking what would happen if you brought something unexpected into the water. Skateboards, chains, umbrellas, balloons. The Great Escape came out of one of those afternoons.

The balloons are filled with water rather than air. An air-filled balloon fights you underwater, pulling in every direction you do not want. Fill it with water and it settles into something much more manageable. There is still a trace of air trapped inside, which gives it that gentle upward pull you can see in the image. Just enough to feel like the subject is being lifted rather than held.

I filled those balloons myself. I remember that afternoon clearly, the trial and error of it, the moment it finally worked.

Three editions of the 36"x36" remain. If this work has been on your mind, send us a message.

https://www.lucasmurnaghan.com/works

06/14/2026

James Fowler was the first curator to believe in Lucas's work. In 2018, he gave him his own room at the 10x10 project at the Gladstone Hotel. Ten photographers, ten works each, a room of their own. He included Lucas when the work was still finding its audience, before the book, before any of it. That kind of early belief from someone with James's standing in the Toronto art world meant a great deal.

This Saturday, Lucas's work returns to a show James is curating, and the setting could not be more fitting.

Nuit Rose: Rewilding opens at Foy House, a historic mansion in the heart of Toronto's gay village, as part of Pride. The show brings together remarkable q***r artists from Canada and abroad, selected through the Throbbing Rose Collective, curated by James Fowler, John Rubino, and Pearl Van Geest.

Artists include Christian Bernard Singer, Rose Cullis, Claire Forsythe, Eric Chengyang, Hunter Cascagnette, Michel Dumont, Rory Perras, Pearl Van Geest, and others. It is exactly the kind of show that makes Pride week in this city worth paying attention to.

Against the Dying of the Light will be on the wall.

Opening night is Saturday, June 20, 5 to 7pm at Foy House, 92 Isabella Street, Toronto. We hope to see you there.

https://www.throbbingrose.ca/nuitrose

Address

Toronto, ON

Telephone

+14167228757

Website

http://www.lucasmurnaghan.com/

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