Kelly Johnson

“I studied at the Michaelis School of Fine Art, University of Cape Town, graduated in 2015. Majoring in photography as my main concentration and discipline, I enjoy developing film as well as digital studio shoots. My inspiration consists of the natural environment, landscapes, maps, aerial photography and city views. I enjoy working with collage and digital manipulation; also have an interest in painting and printmaking. 

My intention is to create internal landscapes, reflecting on my own thoughts, memories and identity. The references are ortho photographic maps as well as aerial photographs of several sites. I then visit these sites and take close-up photographs with a macro lens of a root, a crack in the wall or a texture on a wall or rock. 

I reproduce my own photographs into maps; converting these insignificant moments into enlarged environments. The idea is to make the ‘invisible’, ‘visible’ and to draw attention to the details of places that people do not usually recognize. I offer a less detailed, less scientific way and instead show a poetic, subtle, individualized method in understanding the specific areas that have significance to me.”