Self-taught Swedish photographer and retoucher Erik Johansson makes the implausible possible, turning outrageous scenarios into surreal yet familiar fragments of reality. his ongoing portfolio of photo manipulation sees landscapes unzip from the earth, human body parts shattered like porcelain, and buildings bent in half. Johansson describes his style as ‘photo realistic surrealism — surreal ideas realised in a realistic way with a touch of humour. I can’t really say that I’ve decided what I want my style to look like,’.
Johansson’s recent compositions like ‘impact’, ‘the architect’ and ‘soundscapes’ continue his distortion of the natural world by morphing multiple images into one. for example, ‘impact’ illustrates a lake, breaking apart into pieces of a mirror. the effect has been created through the use of 17 square meters of mirrors and a small boat, which has been carefully overlaid atop a photo of the surrounding landscape. ‘the architect’ is a brain-bending piece that plays with perspective and the distortion of space by forming an architectural optical illusion.
Published on 07th April 2016 via www.designboom.com
Images belong to Erik Johansson
‘it becomes what it becomes, I just realise the ideas that come to my mind and I don’t choose to develop a specific style to make that happen.’