Tag Archives: leah johnston photos


Returning from Dreams


Took this photo of my little sister, Katherine, in El Mirage when she came to visit me in February. It was a brutally cold day in the desert; The lake bed was pretty much abandoned and we could barely get out of the car due to the high winds slamming […]

New Work: After the storm


So happy to be back! I have been so busy lately producing my friend Blake’s first film, that I’ve barely had time to turn around, let alone do personal shoots. It’s been a very exciting […]
After the storm

Some of us cannot be free


This image is very personal to me. The idea here is that in spite of the beauty of the world, many of us will never truly be free to enjoy it because we are trapped- trapped by dogma, trapped by routine, trapped by our inability to escape their own emotions. I often feel that way myself […]

Some of us cannot be free.

Big Shoes to Fill


It’s times like these, when I don’t have a lot of new photography ideas coming in, that I’m thankful I have a backlog of images written down in my notebooks. This is one of the first photo ideas I ever had. I had actually started believing that this photo would only ever exist as an ugly stick figure in a notebook […]
Big Shoes to Fill

Relationship In Photography: Telling Better Stories In Our Images


Something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately is the idea of relationship in photography and how creating interesting relationships in our images helps us not only tell better stories, but create better images. In acting class, the teacher will often ask the actor, “What is your relationship to the […]

Adrift


Took this video at my cottage this weekend with the help of my dad and my neighbors, including their daughter Erin who agreed to play the lonely drifter for me. This is sort of an expansion on the idea I had previously created in this photo, but in video version. I’ve been trying to transition into video these past few months, and I’ve been reading a lot and learning a bunch of new programs […]

Before and After: The Last Great War


I was inspired to create this image when I was driving through Pictou, Nova Scotia and I came upon this 1940’s fighter jet mounted in the middle of an intersection. I wanted to create something noir-ish and I think it turned out somewhat in the vein of Sky Captan and the World of Tomorrow, which is cool. It was surprisingly simple to create- thank you to my new green screen!

Inspiration of the Week: Photomontage Artist Mattijn


One of my biggest inspirations and certainly one of the most interesting artists I’ve come upon on flickr, is photomontage artist Mattijn. If you’ve ever seen his work, you will undoubtedly remember it. He is well known for his extensive surrealist montages. I was absolutely thrilled when he agreed to do a Q&A for my little old blog! I had so many questions, I barely knew where to begin. Read on…



Flying Secrets, originally uploaded by Mattijn.

Before and After: Jacob’s Ladder


Jacob’s Ladder (on top of being a biblical reference) is a real staircase in the park in my hometown. I composited the photo I took of the ladder and the clouds on vacation, with a photo of myself on my apartment building staircase in NY. Then just toyed with hue/sat, curves, filters afterwards. For extra drama, I added a spotlight to the right hand side of the clouds.