In a TEDSalon talk filmed in London during the fall of 2011, Erik Johansson muses on photography that breaks through restraints of reality. When he began photographing at age 15, he realized that “photography was more about being in the right place at the right time,” which he thought anybody could do. He wanted to find a way for the process to start when he took the photo, rather than the process ending. During his short and concise talk, Johansson quickly explains precisely how he does that.
He does well to articulate the reasoning behind his chosen niche in photography during the beginning of his talk, which is a quick way to connect with the audience. Revealing motivations and intentions is a great technique to offer a little of yourself to the audience. Johansson says that his type of photography is “more about capturing an idea than about capturing a moment,” which is a pithy way to give the overall motivation of his practice. In short, he creates realistic photos of impossible scenes, and he does well to show photos at the beginning of his presentation exemplifying this photography.
“I see it as a puzzle of reality where you can take different pieces of reality and put it together to create an alternate reality,” Johansson says. He shows a simple example of how three objects can be combined to create something that looks real, but isn’t. The talk relies heavily on visuals, which is effective in this case because there’s no text involved, only strong images. Also, each visual he presents is essential; there’s nothing superfluous involved.
Johansson goes on to state three simple rules to follow to achieve a realistic result when combining photographs. First, he says the photos combined should have the same perspective. Next, the photos combined should have the same type of light, and lastly, he says to make it impossible to distinguish where the different images begin and end by making it seamless. As he states each step, he shows an example image of how it’s done. He does a great job of breaking down this process into a how-to format, making it easy for a novice to try his hand at this unique type of photography.
Again, Johansson circles back to his motivation for this practice by explaining that it’s easier for him to create a place so he doesn’t have to compromise the ideas in his head. He likens the process to finding pieces of a puzzle and arranging them as he sees fit. Again, he reinforces this idea by showing a combined photo and then breaking down each part of the photo that he’s combined.
Lastly, he sums up his practice by breaking down the process he uses to create the photographs. “To achieve a realistic result, I think it comes down to planning,” he argues. He shows how he sketches the image, combines the photographs and produces a realistic result. Johansson ends his presentation strongly, stating that “all the tools are out there, and the only thing that limits us is our imagination.”
