Eirik Johnson

Begun in late 2001, Eirik Johnson’s on-going series Borderlands navigates unclaimed spaces in search of serendipitous encounters and in awe of the various and temporary relationships that develop where human and environmental forces meet. The scope of the project encompasses the frontiers of the American Northwest, ranging from British Columbia down through Nevada, with an emphasis on the outskirts of Seattle and the edges of the San Francisco Bay area. While these pictures sometimes depict urban sprawl or littered fields and generally evidence a human presence in the environment, they are not concerned so much with the degradation of the landscape as they are with the strange and chance things that happen in places that are largely left alone.

Borderlands proceeds from a project Johnson was trying to develop photographing his own interventions in the landscape. The more time he spent photographing out in the landscape, the more he realized that the things he could find there were more interesting than the things he could create. The style of working seen in Borderlands demands a greater investment of time and thought than the interventions, but the resulting investigations of how things happen on their own are more surprising, more contemplative, and more honest. In addition, this method for investigating marginalized landscapes and chance relationships allows Johnson to draw on two important personal experiences at the fringe of settled territory. The first is his childhood journeys in Seattle exploring the city’s urban edge, an inspiration that may explain the curiosity and almost playful sense of discovery in the work. The other is the years he spent in Peru photographing Qoyllur Rit’i, an annual pilgrimage with pre-Columbian roots that indulges Johnson’s interests in traversing the landscape, marking space, and the physical presence of things.

MOCP EXHIBITION PAGE

Publication

As a book, Borderlands not only collects the most relevant and successful images of the project, it reinforces and extends their meaning. In series they acquire an additional rhythm, a progression that emulates the very journeys from which they are captured. The physical strategies of the book’s design compliment and expand Johnson’s themes. Perhaps chief among them is the full-bleed printing. There are no margins, no gutters, no marks of binding – one could say no borders, save where the paper physically ends. No frames of white space hold the image as an object. In short, there are no distractions, no reminders that the image is flat and its great depth and texture an illusion. Published by Twin Palms Press, $60. View here.

Biography

Eirik Johnson was born in Seattle, Washington in 1974. He holds a BFA in Photography and a BA in History from the University of Washington (1997), as well as an MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute (2003). He spent 1999 through 2000 in Peru on a William J. Fulbright Grant. He has exhibited at ASA Gallery, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico; Headlands Center for the Arts, Sausalito, California; Stanford University, Palo Alto, California; Oakland Art Gallery, Oakland, California; Diego Rivera Gallery, San Francisco; SF Camerawork, San Francisco; Museum of Contemporary Art, Cusco, Peru; and Ojo Ajeno Galería, Centro de la Forografía, Lima, Peru. His photographs are in the collections of The National Fulbright Organization; National Institute of Culture, Peru; Centro de la Forografía, Lima, Peru; and Artist and Special Book Collection, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington.

Exhibition Specifications:

Exhibition is 23 photographs in wood frames and plexiglass, in varying sizes:

5 at 30×39”
6 at 37×45”
3 at 47× 57”
9 at 24×30”

Exhibition requires a minimum of 160 linear feet to hang, but is adaptable to space.

Available Time Slots:

Late Spring/Summer, 2006 – Summer, 2008

Organized and Circulated by

The Museum of Contemporary Photography
Columbia College Chicago
600 S. Michigan
Chicago, IL 60605

Contact

Natasha Egan
Associate Director
312-344-7107
NEgan@colum.edu

Press

TimeOut Chicago: August 18, 2005
Chicago Tribune: August 25th, 2005
Chicago Reader: September 2, 2005

Exhibition Images

Click on the below image to view other images in this exhibition.

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