Erik Johansson / Photos II

Heaven Express

Erik Johansson

PHOTOS II

End of Line

A painting too real, 2008

Angry Ants

Anlagd översvämning, 2007

Erik Johansson / Photos I

 PHOTOS I

by Erik Johansson

Erik Johansson / Cutting light

Cutting light

By Erik Johansson

This is a photo I’ve worked with for the past months. I’ve never really worked with fire so I saw it as an experiment. The idea was to let the lamp beam cut through basically anything that would come in its way. As it would be quite hard to shoot the fire at the location in the apartment I knew that I had to build it up piece by piece.

I shot a fire ring made up of lighter fuel and  saw dust outside in a controlled environment. I shot the smoke separately to be able to put it where I wanted. I then shot the empty room and the model to have something to start with. All lit from below with the fire in mind as a light source. To make sure I got the cut of the light beam right I made a simple 3d model of the space in Google sketchup. I don’t normally use 3d softwares in my work, but using photo match in Sketchup is a great way to see where an object should be placed in a 3-dimentional space.

These are 100 % crops of the different parts of the photo:

ERIK JOHANSSON

Dreamwalker
by Erik Johansson

Erik Johansson's optical illusion photographs will boggle your mind

Swedish photographer Erik Johansson is seemingly on a mission to blow our minds with his captivating optical illusions.

Based in Berlin, he is also a skilled retoucher, which enables him to turn his ambitious ideas into logically surreal projects that look like real photographs.

Self-actualization, 2011
by Erik Johansson

Johansson will often use hundreds of different original images to make one picture with the help of digital alteration software Adobe Photoshop.

His interest in art began aged 15, inspired by his painter grandmother, and he soon began “playing around with photos and creating something you couldn’t capture with the camera” on a computer.

Diamond in the rough
by Erik Johansson

“It was a great way of learning, learning by trying,” Johansson writes on his website, adding that he only began viewing photography as his profession years later.

“I had a lot of ideas that I wanted to realise and I saw it as problem-solving trying to make it as realistic as possible.”

Johansson cites his childhood in the Swedish countryside as a key inspiration for his work, along with famous artists such as Salvador Dali, Rene Magritte and Jacek Yerka.

“It’s a lot about looking at the world from a different perspective,” he says, describing his style as “surreal ideas realised in a realistic way with a touch of humour”.

See more of Johansson’s work at erikjohanssonphoto.com.

THE INDEPENDENT

READ MORE: ERIK JOHANSSON AND THE ART OF MANIPULATION

Erik Johansson is a photographer and retoucher from Sweden based in Berlin, Germany. Working both on personal and commissioned projects. He doesn’t capture moments, he captures ideas. To Erik photography is just a way to collect material to realize the ideas in his mind with a problem solving approach. Although one photo can consist of hundreds of different images he always wants it to look like it could have been captured. Every new project is a new challenge and the goal is to realize it as realistically as possible. For more information about Erik please have a look at the FAQ/Biography page.

Erik Johansson / The art of manipulation

Melting point, 2009

by Erik Johanssson

Erik Johansson: 

The art of manipulation

BY MATILDA BATTERSBY
Monday 03 May 2010

Erik Johansson, a young computer engineering student from Sweden, has been taking the blogosphere by storm by producing heavily manipulated photographs which invert aesthetics as we understand them, inspired by MC Escher and surrealist artists.

Aged just 25, and due to complete his Masters in Interactive Design in under a month, he has already been bombarded with offers of work following a wave of interest from blogs and design magazines after he published his innovative photographic work on his website.

Instead of shying away, as some photographers do, from revealing the intense levels of Photoshop work done on the images he produces, Johansson is proud of the technique he has developed and says it is "somehow different from other kinds of art".

Having taken photographs “all [his] life” he developed a specialist design technique that tricks the eye and the brain. His work is humorous and playful, but can also be quite hard-hitting and political.

The Independent caught up with Johansson by phone, as he was eating his lunch at the university canteen in Gothenburg, Sweden

Mirror, 2007
by Erik Johansson

How have you dealt with the recent exposure you've had?

It’s a bit overwhelming because I’m not really used to it. I haven’t put much effort into promoting my pictures, except for my website. People seem to have discovered them somehow. It’s really fun and has generated some great work opportunities for me. Particularly re-touching work for advertising agencies. I even went to Paris recently to complete some work.

Why do people respond so positively to your work?

I think it’s because the realisation is so realistic. Some of the ideas are quite abstract but when you first look at it, it appears realistic which creates the surprise. Plus, I think the images are somehow different from other kinds of art.

Fishy Island
by Erik Johansson

Can you tell us a bit about the production process?

I have been doing the photography all my life but I’ve only been doing the manipulations for about four or five years.

What takes most time in the production process is the planning. With good planning the other steps don’t take so long.

If I have a good idea I will add it to my list of projects that I want to realise. The photography, for me, is a way to get material because my work is created on a computer afterwards. From the idea to the final image, it can take between a week and a month.

You appear in some of the photographs yourself. Why?

Some of the models in the pictures are me, yes, but I try to get other people most of the time as it’s much easier to do. I don't really like being in them myself, so a lot of the models featured are friends and family.

Walk a wayby Erik Johansson

Have you received much attention in your native Sweden?

Not that many people have heard of me here in Sweden. France has shown the most interest in my work.

You’re studying Computer Engineering, which is very different from being an artist. Do you want to do the photography as a career?

I want to do this as my job. It was a just a hobby for several years, but I’ve started to think about trying to make a living out of it more and more.

Drifting Away
by Erik Johansson

People don’t usually thing of Computer Engineering as a creative arts subject. What do you think?

It can be creative, but in a more abstract way. Writing code can be kind of creativity you know, in terms of solving problems. My photographs are a lot like that, except they’re creating visual problems by solving them, as it were.

Who or what inspires you?

I get my inspiration from artists rather than photographers. MC Escher, Dali and Rene Magritte and other old fashioned artists mainly.

What are you up to at the moment?

Right now I’m finishing my Masters so I’m not doing any photography. I’ve got a lot of priorities at the moment and the photographs are not really the highest.

THE INDEPENDENT

Erik Johansson is a photographer and retoucher from Sweden based in Berlin, Germany. Working both on personal and commissioned projects. He doesn’t capture moments, he captures ideas. To Erik photography is just a way to collect material to realize the ideas in his mind with a problem solving approach. Although one photo can consist of hundreds of different images he always wants it to look like it could have been captured. Every new project is a new challenge and the goal is to realize it as realistically as possible.