(828) 526-0173 | [email protected] | Copyright 2024 – All Rights Reserved.
Ice and Waterscape
Written By: Donna Rhodes | Issue: 2016/01 - Winter | Photograph By: Charles Johnson
Imagine stepping out of your back door into lush woodland and shooting a prize-winning photo.
That’s what fine art photographer Charles Johnson did to capture the cover of Laurel’s winter issue.
He says, “I shot a patch of ice melting in a shallow creek thirty paces from my backdoor. The morning light was dazzling, creating a living, shimmering radiance in a five-inch section of architectural ice. Some days it’s a 10-mile hike to the image-of-the-day. Other times, it’s right at your own back door.”
Johnson considers himself lucky to own a parcel of Cashiers heaven. It’s here he does his most inspired shooting. Landscapes, tiny to panoramic, are his passion. Starting out as a commercial photo-finisher, he understands every aspect of photography from darkroom to digital to dramatic prints akin to those of Ansel Adams, his inspiration.
He particularly likes Adams’ comparison of music to photography: “The negative is the equivalent of the composer’s score, and the print the performance.” Johnson makes his own music with dynamic rhythmic patterns, layered textures, crisp lines, and movement.
Adams had the advantage of long, uncluttered vistas to shoot out west. The lush foliage of North Carolina mountains, while beautiful in its own right, is a bit chaotic, compositionally speaking. In the Appalachians, Fall through Spring present the most compelling subject matter when leaves are sparse, light pristine, and the landscape linear. After a lifetime of photographic studies of the region, it’s no wonder Johnson has risen to the top of his photographic field.
See Johnson’s work at Mountain Mist Gallery or Monday’s House of Design. Visit his website at charlesjohnsonfineart.org or check him out on Facebook. He is available for private lessons online. Send a brief history of your photographic experience accompanied by work samples to [email protected]. Call him at (704) 339-0602.
When it’s time to compose, Johnson knows the score; and the result, symphonic.
