Erik Johansson
As soon as I saw Erik Johansson’s work I know that I wanted to learn more and develop an artist crush on him immediately. He takes his different types of work and turns them into beautiful masterpieces. Erik was born in 1985 to a family in Sweden; he grew up with his parents and his two younger sisters. He has always had a deep love for art and drawing because his grandmother was an amazing painter so he was constantly in an art environment as a child. Johansson received his first digital camera at the age of fifteen and decided that it was weird to him that he was taking digital art instead of drawing and painting out all of his art. As he was creating art with his camera he realized that it was not the same process as creating paintings or drawings. He later decided that he wanted to expand his knowledge for computers and moved away to attend college. Later he then decided to rekindle his relationship with retouching photography. Currently he is still working on his amazing photography.
This first picture that I chose to write about is titled, “Melting Point” and was created in 2009. I chose this piece of work mainly because of its title, the way that Johansson connect the title to the picture, and the way he uses irony in this particular work. In a normal world a person holding a popsicle on a hot day, the popsicle would be melting. Johansson went against what the normal was. He dove into the parallel universe. Instead of the popsicle melting, the arm is melting. Johansson says that he strives to capture ideas, instead of moments. He tries to take photos that you would never be able to take with a camera. For the work that Johansson tries to achieve he does it perfectly. One would never be able to tell that this was not a real picture. He creates the perfect illusion that leaves you to wonder for just a minute if that is real life. And for that reason, his work is truly inspiring.
For my next piece of work that I picked out to use is titled, “Arms Break, Vases Don’t” and was created by Erik Johansson in 2008. I have a couple reasons behind why I chose to use this picture to represent Johansson. One of the reasons is because of the illusion aspect of the piece of art. It is so amazing to me how he can take a couple of different photographs and morph them together to make a completely new picture with a completely new meaning. Another reason I chose this picture is because of the symbolism I felt was very strong. In the picture it shows a china vase fallen on the floor, and instead of the vase falling on the floor and shattering it is the hands that the vase are in that shattered. The symbolism that I see in this is that people in the modern day world are so concerned with the fragile world around them that they do not take the time to make sure that their own fragile lives are not broken. I am not sure what the meaning Erik Johansson was trying to portray with piece of work, but I know that the symbolism I see in this picture creates a much deeper love for this picture.