Erik Johansson- Artist, Visionary & Master Compositer
In his own words.......
I was born in April 1985 outside a small town called
Götene in the middle of Sweden. I grew up on a
farm with my parents and two younger sisters and
I spent a lot of time in nature. For as long as I can
remember I have liked drawing. Maybe because of my
grandmother who was a painter. When my mom asked
me how my day in school was I would rather draw a
comic showing how it was. My dad got a computer for
work already in the mid 80’s so I also early developed
an interest in computers, mostly by escaping to other
worlds through computer games. At the age of 15 I got
my first digital camera, a very simple point-and-shoot
Fuji film camera, but it opened up a new world to
me. Being used to the process of drawing it felt quite
strange to be done after capturing a photo, it wasn’t
the process of creating something in the same way
as drawing. You didn’t start with a white empty paper,
once you pressed the trigger you were done. I early
felt like I wanted to do something more to the photos
and having an interest in computers made it quite a
natural step to start there. I was playing around with
the photos in the computer trying to create something
that you couldn’t capture with the camera, mostly very
basic modifications like changing color or putting my
little sisters on our roof top. That is how my interest in
photo manipulation started, I learned by trying but it
wouldn’t become a profession until years later.
I was quite good at mathematics in school and liked
the science behind how things work. I went for the
natural science program in high school and in 2005 I
moved to Gothenburg to study Computer engineering
at Chalmers University of Technology. By that time I
didn’t have any plans on doing the photography for
a living, I couldn’t imagine it to be a real profession,
it was just a fun hobby and didn’t really believe that
fun and work could be combined. But during my time
studying my friend Eric bought a DSLR (Canon EOS
350d). This camera was somthing completly different
from the simple point and shoot cameras I had tried
up until this point. I was out taking pictures with Eric a
few times and it led to me also getting a DSLR (Canon
EOS 400d) the year after. A pretty big investment at
the time still being a student. I took up my interest for
photography and photo manipulation once again but
this time having a better camera I felt like I wanted
to spend more time manipulating them as well. I had
learned the basics already and started spending more
time on each photo.
I had a lot of ideas that I wanted to bring to life and
it was a lot about problem solving trying to make it
look as realistic as possible. After publishing some
of my images online I started to get requests helping
out with some retouch for a few local advertisement
agencies. I slowly started freelancing in parallel with
my studies while still working on my personal pro jects.
I got more and more jobs and by the time I finished
my studies with a master in Interaction Design I felt
like I rather wanted to try out the photography path,
at least for a while to see how it went. It was time to
change environment after 5 years in Gothenburg so I
moved to Norrköping in the eastern part of Sweden
to try out the life of a freelance. I made new friends
and work slowly stared to take off. At first for some
advertisement agencies in town but by having my
work published online I also stared to get requests
from abroad. In early 2012 it was time for something
new again and I packed my bags for Berlin, Germany.
I’ve always thought that inspiration lies within the
contrast between things. With the history of Berlin
I couldn’t think of a city with more contrasts than
Berlin. Once again I had to restart, meet new friends
and get to know a new city. In November 2015 I moved
once more to Prague, Czech Republic and where I am
currently based.
Today I work on both personal and commissioned
projects, sometimes quite unusual like a street retouch
prank or anamorphic illusion installations. I’ve been
working with clients such as Google, Adobe, Microsoft
and National Geographic. I love doing my personal
projects and but it’s also satisfying making someone
else’s vision come to life with the commissioned work.
I think growing up on the Swedish countryside had a
big impact on my visual style. A lot of the environments
in my photos are captured near places I know, around
my parents’ home with wide open landscapes and
small red houses. Inspiration is everywhere and once
you learn the tools you’re only limited by your own
imagination. This year I turned 30 and I feel like I’m
just getting stared for real. There are so many more
projects waiting to be put to life.
In November 2011 I spoke at the TED conference in
London about my photography and in May 2013 at the
Adobe MAX conference and you can see those videos
below.
inspire, be inspired
Erik, May 2015
NM CliQ Magazine | July 2016
21