Marcus Johansson

Up and down the street with the camera in hand and a small photo bag on the shoulder, a short telephoto lens and a proper city map in the outer compartment of my car. This was 1981 and the entire city of Paris laid before my eyes. Impressed by black and white photographs that I […]

Up and down the street with the camera in hand and a small photo bag on the shoulder, a short telephoto lens and a proper city map in the outer compartment of my car. This was 1981 and the entire city of Paris laid before my eyes. Impressed by black and white photographs that I found in swivel steel postcard stands along the sidewalks and the river Seine, I did not know then that I would be “hooked for life” by this category of motifs.

Curious about who the photographer was behind these fantastic black and white images in postcard format, I read the name Henri Cartier-Bresson. Wow! It was something completely different compared to the selection of sun-bleached postcards from Östra beach in Halmstad, which I had chosen a year earlier to send as a greeting home to my mom in Stockholm during summer vacation.

Much later in life around 2005, I realized that what I saw and wanted to capture in a picture from street life was of a much simpler nature. I also realized my photographic limitation, which frustratingly was not enough to recreate what I experienced and saw along the sidewalks. Namely my fascination for human expression with posture / language and movement patterns. Excited and obsessed with finding out if it was possible, I went back to Paris in 2008. I decided to let go of everything that attracted me to make generally good pictures of this delightful city and instead devoted myself entirely to experimenting with shutter speeds , focal lengths, camera angles and image compositions. 23,000 pictures in almost a month finally gave me the knowledge I was longing for. But to then understand and be able to use it consciously and spontaneously, is something i still struggle with although I have made significaant progress. A good picture in my eyes leaves nothing more to be desired.

I want to show you this during my presentation at the Gothenburg Street Photo Festival as well as some bonus photos that are the result of endless hours of wear and tear along the sidewalks and the meetings street life has enriched me with.

A brief recap of Marcus’ background.
As a self-taught professional for the past 25 years, I am passionate about shooting creatively, nuanced, documentary and sometimes artistically in virtually all subject categories. My photography journey started back in 1977 and my interest in the Street genre took off in the early 80’s. I have been teaching and holding lectures since 2001 for business and then more in the private sector with, among other things, regular photo excursions (Photo Walks) since 2003. I’ve written photo courses and taught for Folkuniversitetet for 10 years. As the founder of Street Photo workshops in Sweden, I teach self-directed courses in regularly in metropolises such as Paris – New York – Berlin – Hong Kong – Barcelona – Istanbul and more.

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