Steve Johnston

Biography

Born in Glasgow in 1956 Johnston grew up in Dumfries and studied at art school. Upon leaving, he became an apprentice electrician for a brief period, as he was uncertain of where his artistic path lay. In 1973, Carlisle College offered him a placement, where, during the second year, he opted for a change in medium, preferring photography to painting. He found black & white formats extremely inspiring and exciting to work with, seeing himself, in fact, as an artist but utilising a camera rather than paint. After leaving college he moved to London where he did freelance work for teen magazines, which led to work for Voguein 1977. This style of photo launched the first issue of i-D magazine in 1980, where he worked for the next decade. In 1991, when photography was proving less inspirational for him, he started painting seriously again, concentrating once again on the medium that he had originally embraced. “It was then that something clicked and I have not looked back since – painting is my life.” Johnston is always drawn to figures that create a great shape. Details such as how someone is standing or what they are doing come into play afterwards. It is the graphic shape of the ‘body mass’ that inspires the first ideas. Certain images can unlock powerful emotions which are separate from what the actual content of the picture could create if focused on in more detail. He attempts to take the voyeur somewhere with a sense of the familiar that has an almost ephemeral and ethereal quality, rather than somewhere specific. With the same reasoning, he does not depict figures to be anyone in particular “The aim is to portray an essence and emotion rather than a well defined and precise person or location, as I am not interested in set narrative pieces.”