Gerry Johansson
"In Plain View"

Exhibition: 20 September – 2 November 2024

There are several common denominators found throughout Gerry Johansson’s work that become apparent with even casual viewing. Some of those shared characteristics are obvious at first glance, for instance; the physicality of several of Johansson's books and exhibition print sizes, the apparent use of traditional analog materials; while other traits like the sense of stillness, the seeming perpetual daylight, and the camera's steady almost drone-like orientation to the world set an underlying commonality. Perhaps a trait most recognizable is his choice of working primarily in black and white.

The "America" photographs began when Johansson's parents sent him to New York after finishing his schooling in Varberg Sweden. Those early pictures inspired by the energies of the city (and the pulse of jazz!) might appear as an artist finding their voice through exploring a loosened documentary style tangential to Garry Winogrand, or perhaps more closely Ray K. Metzger, yet the year 1962 places Johansson right in their midst, not successor. The few examples included here taken with a small-format 35mm camera, are characterized by a tonal scale that allows shadows to swallow some detail and highlights to succumb to atmospheric fog: a grouping of men riding a ferry on New York's Hudson River are reduced to simple silhouettes against a fading Manhattan skyline; a maintenance worker on a ladder contrasted with New York's most famous landmark, the Empire State Building, emphasizing the dizzying verticality of the city through a patchwork of shadow and light. Though authentic and drawn directly from the real world, there is a dreamlike quality to these works that evolved into the "translucid clearness" that signifies Johansson's practice today.

What I find refreshing about Johansson's work is the sense one feels of his enjoyment of moving through an unfamiliar landscape and simply taking in what is before him. The work seems formed not in the mind first, but through the physical footsteps he takes and directness at which he looks.

Text by Jeffrey Ladd

Gerry Johansson, born 1945 in Örebro, lives in Höganäs, Sweden. Johansson studied graphic design in Gothenburg in the late 1960s. His work has been exhibited at distinguished museums and institutions internationally, including the Kunsthalle Rostock in Germany; Museum of Modern Art in Bogota, Colombia; Hasselblad Center in Göteborg and the Moderna Museet in Stockholm, Sweden. Johansson has produced a large number of books including the recently published "Spanish Summer" and "American Winter", both MACK and was awarded the Swedish Arts Grants Committee’s Award and the prestigious Lars Tunbjörk Prize.

Jeffrey Ladd is an American photographer based in Cologne, Germany. Ladd has written extensively about photography. He is a co-founder of Errata Editions and author of A Field Measure Survey of American Architecture (MACK).