Robert S Johnson is a freelance photographer and photography teacher based between New York City and Wellfleet. Most recently he had a solo show “PLEASANT Point-PAIN(E) Hollow at Preservation Hall in Wellfleet MA. His work has appeared in group shows in galleries from New York to Budapest and he has published seven books.
Robert grew up on the grounds of the Boston State Hospital (formerly the Boston Insane Asylum) and returned to work on several of the locked wards during the summers while attending college.
He received an MFA in Theater from UC San Diego and soon after moved to New York City where he worked in Off-Off Broadway for a decade. After 3 years as co-Artistic Director of THECO, a theater company, he moved on to odd jobs, testing nail polish for Revlon, editing a news show for Japanese speakers despite not speaking Japanese and so on, before 20 years of corporate life which he hated but excelled at.
In 2011, Robert devoted himself to photography full-time. He spent five years walking, driving, and photographing the Hudson River. Robert’s photography includes expansive project-based visual poems, including “Trans_Lucent,” which he describes as a project without end. He is working on a new collection called “Color in Black and White”. He has been working on “The Lonely House” for 15 years.
APA|NY awarded him the B&H and Phase One prize in the category of landscape/architecture in 2015. He was awarded the Juror’s Choice by PH 21 Gallery in their Exhibition “Feminine/Masculine and has been featured in SxSE Magazine.
Robert is an accomplished Lightroom instructor and photography teacher. For the past six years, he has co-taught “Photojournalism as Art” at the School of The New York Times and has taught “The Art of Noticing” workshop at The Truro Center for The Arts at Castle Hill. His photographs appear frequently in the Provincetown Independent. He is a DJ at WOMR 92.1 FM in Provincetown (WOMR.org). He loves archery and shoots whenever he can.
Robert lives with his wife, Katherine, a chef, author, and food writer; occasionally his son, Asher (a recent graduate of Smith College); and Opawl the rescue kitty. He is allergic to the cat but loves her anyway.
