We recently connected with Katrina Johnson and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Katrina thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s jump to the end – what do you want to be remembered for?

I’ve always felt a sense of otherness, as if everyone around me just inherently knew how to be a person and my handbook never arrived in the mail. Prone to existential dread from a young age, the looming cloud of oblivion tends to cast a shadow large enough to swallow me whole some days. I try to translate that sense of isolation through my work. Ironically enough, I hope the feeling of “alone” that I convey through my photos becomes my legacy, to serve as a reminder that you are, in fact, not alone in how you feel.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My name is Katrina Johnson and I’m a self-taught portrait photographer with a background in visual arts and digital design. My late grandmother was a painter, and one of my very first cognizant memories is closed-fist clutching a paintbrush like a tiny goblin, attempting- and failing miserably- to emulate her fluid motions. As far back as I can remember, art has always bridged the gap between the world inside my head and the world around me. I received a toy film camera as a gift in middle school and I immediately became enamored by the concept of being able to tell an entire story without the use of a single word. Impassive parents and a turbulent childhood fueled my desire to convey the inner turmoil I was unable to verbally articulate. I began to utilize photography as my main outlet for emotional expression. I was intent on being profoundly understood and I used that drive to slowly cultivate my visual aesthetic. I didn’t like the reality that I was living in, so I created my own.

My photography borrows a lot of elements from cinema- dramatic lighting, theatrical composition, overt melodrama. I use a lot of pastel hues, soft focus, and isolated subjects. I want my photos to transport the viewer into the dreamy rose-tinted haze of nostalgia’s bittersweet embrace. Taking the time to get to know my clients on a more fundamental level is crucial, so that I can serve as a conduit between their abstract thoughts and their materialized vision. I dive into every shoot with the intention of creating emotional palpability.

I saved up for my first DSLR in high school and set forth on a mission to disrupt the shiny manufactured industry standards of commercial photography. At 18, I landed a position as a promotional photographer for a local radio station and began my professional career, subsequently creating more forward momentum with each passing milestone. Over the past decade, I’ve shot events and concerts all over Southern California, band promos, art shows, news coverage, postcards, clothing lines, celebrity content, weddings, anniversaries, engagements, product launches, fashion blogs, album covers, and even national publications. I’ve always wanted my work to be ubiquitous- to see my photos in magazines and billboards, and in recent years I was able to make that a reality. One of my pieces resides 20 feet wide on the exterior of a building here in San Diego and I actually get to drive past it every morning on my way to work. I’ve been incredibly privileged to be able to turn my passion into my livelihood. I invite you to take a step into my melancholic dream world.

We’d love to hear the story of how you turned a side-hustle into a something much bigger.

Photography has always been a prominent tool of expression through my formative years and I’ve been privileged enough to turn it into my livelihood! After I graduated high school, I entered survival mode- I was suddenly on my own, I couldn’t afford to go to college, I was in an extremely abusive relationship at the time, and all I really knew how to do was capture the world around me. I impulsively decided to move to the east coast shortly after my 18th birthday and started blasting my portfolio to every publication, agency, and studio in the area. I didn’t have a degree to back my skill set, so I had to bank on the quality of my work alone. I didn’t have much under my belt asides from personal projects and a few viral photos during the Tumblr era, but by some miracle, I was able to land my first hands-on job in the field as a freelance photo journalist for a local newspaper. The pay was laughable, but the experience was crucial in expanding my versatility as an artist. I didn’t want to pin myself down to any specific type of photography just yet, so over the next few years, I bounced around doing all sorts of freelance gigs. I took the grassroots approach in reaching commercial clientele by way of simply reaching out to their creative leads and presenting my work and praying for any type of forward momentum. As my portfolio became more expansive, I was able to leverage a larger client base while simultaneously driving more traffic through social media. One of the first key milestones in my career was when I was covering an event for an alternative music blog, I was sent to the venue with my media badge and a point of contact- completely unaware that I was actually about to shoot one of my favorite bands. Standing between the stage and the barrier containing the crowd, I was handed a rose by someone in the front row, paired with an earnest request to pass it onto the lead singer. I finally felt like I was “in” and my efforts were beginning to materialize. Since then, I’ve shot brand assets for national ad campaigns, sprawling landscapes for postcards, macro work for high-end jewelry companies, assets for album and book covers, promotional launches for celebrity collaborations, candid portraiture for art shows, and commercial work for a massive building display!

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

The most rewarding aspect of being an artist is definitely being able to find the strength in displaying my vulnerability and discovering freedom through expression. We are emotional beings navigating a world in which we are taught to subdue those emotions for the sake of saving face. We learn to say “I’m fine”, when we aren’t. Sometimes I feel like I experience the entire spectrum of human emotion simultaneously, and to suppress the depth at which I feel, whether positive or otherwise, would be an injustice to myself by not allowing the experience of life in its entirety- mess and all.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @fullysmoothbrain

Image Credits
Katrina Johnson