The Decisive Contrast

This is not a test. This is really what you see.

David Johnson, The Watering Hole and Up the Creek

At first glance you might think that David D. Johnson’s images are crafted with digital sleight of hand. But truth, as they say, is often stranger than fiction. “Photography is a blend of art and science, luck and magic, and those are powerful things to be working with,” he says. Which is not to say that Johnson is anti-Photoshop. “There are no rules — I enjoy all new photographic techniques that advance the art of photography,” he insists. It’s just that his work represents the world as it actually can be seen through his lens. As a student, Johnson says the photographers he most admired were documentary photographers like Henri Cartier-Bresson, W. Eugene Smith, Margaret Bourke-White and Walker Evans. “I like to think I’m following in their tradition, but with my own interpretation and approach. ”What catches his eye? Nature. He is particularly interested in juxtapositions where nature and human-made depictions of nature intersect — and might cause people to consider something in a new way. “Some viewers might find my work funny, odd or not serious, but my concerns for our environment are serious, and my photographs illustrate these concerns.” An internationally recognized photographer with a distinguished thirty-year career, Johnson lives in Seattle and teaches photography at Pierce College. His exhibit, An Off the Wall Look at Human Nature, is on view at the Fine Arts Gallery at Pierce College Fort Steilacoom through October 22.