Associate Professor and Art & Art History Department Chair, Jonathan Johnson, is a photographer and filmmaker whose work explores ideas about place, identity and nature. It includes darkroom experiments, video, and color images that focus on landscape, place and autobiography. Much of the work was created during sabbatical at artist residencies and travel in Thailand, Scotland and Scandinavia. Autobiography plays a role in his work, as he often references his mixed-heritage background, travel, and backcountry exploration. He collaborates with composers, writers, poets, designers and fellow artists in his artwork that takes the form of photographic prints, books, films, videos and teaching projects. His teaching practice incorporates these elements with the intention of forming professionally minded, contemporary artists. Before working in academia, he was a competitive ski racer and held positions in the music industry and public affairs.

Jonathan has just finished a solo exhibition and workshop titled, The People’s Forest, at Ohio University’s Test Strip Gallery. On November 17, he gave an Artist’s Talk at the Westerville Public Library. He was recently featured in an analog photography group show at the Island Darkroom in Isle of Lewis, Scotland. 

Jonathan’s sabbatical exhibition, Mixtape: Landscape, will open on January 9th, 2023, in the Miller Gallery at Otterbein. This show will be a retrospective exhibition and feature darkroom experiments, large scale color prints, video, photo zines and a t-shirt design.