October Lecture 1

Simen Johan

Johan digitally composes his images which is a big change from the way he used to work. Each image he makes usually takes a couple years to perfect before its complete. In the lecture he said " Our world is unexplainable, we don't know our purpose." In a lot of his work this statement is evident with the overpowering environments the children exist in. His pictures are very disturbing and creepy. He said that children have minds that are too complex and he imagines them as psycho. Johan likes to base his work off of the idea of play and insanity.

Evidence of Things Unseen is a series he created between 2000 and 2002. Each picture was photographed by him and he wanted these to be about play and creativity. He wanted to expose emotions such as pain and fear. Simon said that he works intuitively and often works with religious pieces. By having ritualistic images in his work, he hopes that the viewer will see something special. In his series titled Until The Kingdom Comes ( 2004-present ) he uses animals rather than humans. These animals are more comfortable in their enviroments that hes created. He wanted these pictures to be about fantasy and how they have the ability to shape our lives. His images are sharp and have very bold content and seem to be perfectly composed.