How could you properly begin to describe Erik Johansson’s work? It’s somewhere between photography and digital trickery – using flawless retouching skills to bring surreal concepts to life. Johannson is a self-taught Swedish photographer and retoucher currently based in Berlin. Unsurprisingly, he is inspired more by paintings than photographers, drawn to artists such as Salvador Dali and Rene Magritte.
Describing his work as capturing ideas rather than situations, Johannson tries to look at the everyday world in a different way, or, in his own words: “Inspiration is everywhere, and what you can imagine is what you can create.” The process for each of these pieces can take anywhere from a week to years and is typically done is three stages. Coming up with the concept and planning comes first, followed by collecting the materials and shooting, and, as everything is sourced or created especially for each piece, this part can take the longest. The final stage involves putting it all together, which is the “easiest” step in his opinion, relatively.
Images from: http://erikjohanssonphoto.com/
