Erik Johansson

Erik Johansson (born 1985) is a photographer and artist from Sweden based in Prague, Czech Republic. His work can be described as surreal scenes created by combining different photographs. Erik works on both personal and commissioned projects with clients all around the world.

Surrealism Photography By Swedish Artist Erik Johansson

In contrast to traditional photography he doesn’t capture moments, he captures ideas with the help of his camera and imagination. The goal is to make it look as realistic as possible even if the scene itself contains impossible elements. In the end it all comes down to problem solving, finding a way to capture the impossible.

Erik Johansson Biography

I was born in April 1985 outside a small town called Götene in the middle south of Sweden. I grew up on a farm with my parents and two younger sisters and I spent a lot of time in nature. For as long as I can remember I have liked drawing. Maybe because of my grandmother who was a painter, or maybe because that’s how I always liked to express myself. When my mom asked me how my day in school was I would rather draw a comic showing how it was The Starting Point To Photography.

My dad got a computer for work already in the mid 80’s so I also early developed an interest in computers, mostly by escaping to other worlds through computer games. At the age of 15 I got my first digital camera, a very simple point-and-shoot Fuji camera, but it opened up a new world to me. Being used to the process of drawing it felt quite strange to be done after capturing a photo, it wasn’t the process of creating something in the same way as drawing. You didn’t start with a white empty paper, once you pressed the trigger you were done.

I felt like I wanted to do something more to the photos, where pressing the trigger would only be the start. Having an interest in computers made it quite a natural step to start there. I was playing around with the photos in the computer trying to create something that you couldn’t capture with the camera, mostly very basic modifications like changing color or putting my little sisters on our roof top.

That is how my interest in photo manipulation started, I learned by trying but it wouldn’t become a profession until years later.

I was quite good at mathematics and physics in school and liked the science behind how things work. I went for the natural science program in high school and in 2005 I moved to Gothenburg to study Computer engineering at Chalmers University of Technology.

By that time I didn’t have any plans on doing the photography for a living, I couldn’t imagine it to be a real profession, it was just a fun hobby and didn’t really believe that fun and work could be combined. But during my time studying my friend Eric bought a DSLR (Canon EOS 350d).

Swedish Artist Erik Johansson Photography
Swedish Artist Erik Johansson Photography

View Erik Johansson Photography

This camera was something completely different from the simple point and shoot cameras I had tried up until this point. I was out taking pictures with Eric a few times and it led to me also getting a DSLR (Canon EOS 400d) the year after. I took up my interest for photography and photo manipulation once again but this time having a better camera I felt like I wanted to spend more time manipulating them as well.


To get update: Erik Johansson Website