Collection
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Artist
Mark Johnson
Australia, England
06 Jan 1946 -

About
Mark Johnson's practice spans both an informal documentary style and a more formalised aesthetic that arranges individual images within typological series. After graduating in medicine from the University of Sydney in 1970, Johnson later studied in London and became interested in photography. He held his first solo exhibition in 1978 at the Australian Centre for Photography. Johnson focused his camera lens on Sydney's beaches and buildings - from Coogee to Glebe and beyond - to systematically document various locations around the harbour and the city. The 'Sydney Beaches' series includes 17 photographs and the 'Sydney Buildings' series includes 24 photographs. Each beach image features a band of sky, a foreshore building and bathers strewn across white sand. By producing each image in black and white and repeating various compositional elements, Johnson asks the viewer to look beyond the obvious, to discover differences among similarities.
Details
Date
1983-1984
Materials used
gelatin silver photograph
Dimensions
40.7 x 50.7 cm image; 50.6 x 60.6 cm sheet
Signature & date
Signed and dated l.c. verso, pencil, "...1983-84/ MARK JOHNSON".
Credit
Gift of the artist 1993
Location
Not on display
Accession number
84.1993
Shown in 1 exhibition
Exhibition history
City by the Sea: Mark Johnson's Sydney photographs, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 21 Sep 1993–07 Nov 1993