Photography is in his blood
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His digital photography, now on display at Magness Library, is the result of years of work in the field. It began as what could have easily been a passing phase – such as many 10-year-old boys go through – but it never ended.
At 10, his parents gave him an old Kodak Brownie camera to take snapshots with to his heart’s content. But he soon learned there was more to photography than meets the eye.
He wanted to learn more and found himself visiting his local library, looking at National Geographic magazines and later, looking for books on work done by the photographer Ansel Adams, a nature photographer.
When he asked the librarian for the books, she wondered why a 12-year-old would be interested, but she gave him the books anyway.
“She didn’t have a book that he had done but had a book that had the work of several nature photographers in it, including some by Adams. She showed me those and I was fascinated,” Johnson said of his beginnings. “I was still taking snapshots but I wanted to take photographs like they took. My pictures didn’t look like that. I was very disappointed I couldn’t get those results.”
He kept looking for a better way and finally found what he was looking for. Photography, he learned, was about composition, lighting and equipment.
“That’s exactly what I was looking for and I found out a very large part of photography is equipment, so when I was 13, I started begging my parents for a nice camera.”
He got it. It was a Yashica twin lens reflex and from there, camera equipment became increasingly important.
So too, did his experiences with photography grow as he found himself working at places like the White County High School darkroom, the Expositor, Sparta’s local newspaper, and at the dark room at Tennessee Tech in Cookeville, still taking pictures every chance he got.
Today, Johnson’s work represents a surreal twist from nature, generated with the assistance of computers and his other passion, science fiction. He has found a way to intertwine digital photography with images generated by computer software programs, creating an image where an unnatural object pops out of a natural setting.
It’s a double take for most people, library manager Mary Robbins said of the exhibit.
“His photography is unique. I’ve never seen composition quite like he has – it’s just incredibly beautiful. It amazes me what he’s been able to do with a computer and a camera.”
Johnson said he has never shown his work in public before and the attention is a little overwhelming.
“I always wanted to be an artist, but I couldn’t draw very well. I just saw photography as a way to be creative and create something fun to look at,” he added.
“I think what they’re saying is that it has a bright, crisp look,” Robbins said of the public’s reactions to the display. “It’s innovative and it’s very creative. That’s certainly what I see about it.”