Presentation
Sweden - Born in 1985
Trompe L’oeil
“I like creating photographs that force the viewer to stop for a few seconds to understand where the trick is.” The closer you look at Erik Johansson’s photos, the less you understand them. When he discovered photography at the age of 15, the artist quickly came up with a principle that would influence his entire career. For many photographers, the creative process stops after pressing the shutter button, but for Erik, who has a passion for art and drawing, that is where it all begins.
His technique is to combine several images that have nothing to do with each other to create surreal, sometimes absurd, views with one common thread running through all his works: concern for the environment. “I’d rather capture an idea than a moment,” the 36-year-old Swede likes to point out. For Johansson is a virtuoso of post-production, manipulating his digital tools as precisely as a surgeon wields his scalpel. His retouching skills are even the subject of entire conferences, where the professional graphic artist shares his tips and methods step by step. “You have to create a puzzle from reality,” explains the photographer. “You have to ask yourself what creates an illusion. Then you assemble the different pieces to create alternate realities.” Certain rules underpin his process: for example, the images must share the same perspective, the same light and the same contrast. “The aim is to make the reading of the final image as complicated as possible,” he concludes. “The beholder shouldn’t be able to spot where the original photo begins.” Like a cleverly performed magic trick.
GRAND CHÊNE
© Erik Johansson
Exhibition
“I like creating photographs that force the viewer to stop for a few seconds to understand where the trick is.” The closer you look at Erik Johansson’s photos, the less you understand them. When he discovered photography at the age of 15, the artist quickly came up with a principle that would influence his entire career. For many photographers, the creative process stops after pressing the shutter button, but for Erik, who has a passion for art and drawing, that is where it all begins.
His technique is to combine several images that have nothing to do with each other to create surreal, sometimes absurd, views with one common thread running through all his works: concern for the environment. “I’d rather capture an idea than a moment,” the 36-year-old Swede likes to point out. For Johansson is a virtuoso of post-production, manipulating his digital tools as precisely as a surgeon wields his scalpel. His retouching skills are even the subject of entire conferences, where the professional graphic artist shares his tips and methods step by step. “You have to create a puzzle from reality,” explains the photographer. “You have to ask yourself what creates an illusion. Then you assemble the different pieces to create alternate realities.” Certain rules underpin his process: for example, the images must share the same perspective, the same light and the same contrast. “The aim is to make the reading of the final image as complicated as possible,” he concludes. “The beholder shouldn’t be able to spot where the original photo begins.” Like a cleverly performed magic trick.
GRAND CHÊNE