West Chapter ConferenceSpeakers

Chris Johnson

Saturday, October 06, 2012 @ 2:30pm, Nahl Hall

Question Bridge: Black Males

Chris Johnson is a photographic and video artist, writer, curator and arts administrator. He studied photography with Ansel Adams, Imogen Cunningham and Wynn Bullock.

In 1994 with Suzanne Lacy he co-produced with a large performance work in Oakland titled "The Roof is on Fire" bringing together inner-city high school students and adults. In 1996 he produced an innovative one-hour video piece titled "Question Bridge".

Chris Johnson is the author of The Practical Zone System: for Film and Digital Photography; currently in its 5th edition. From 1997 to 2000 he was Director of the Mother Jones International Fund for Documentary Photography.

As a member of the Public Art Management Team for the Port of Oakland, Chris Johnson is Project Manager and originated the concept for the 8' x 20' Media Wall installed in the Terminal 2 Southwest Airlines baggage claim area in 2007.

Together with Hank Willis Thomas Chris Johnson created a transmedia project titled: Question Bridge: Black Males. This project appeared simultaneous at the Brooklyn Museum in New York, the Oakland Museum in Oakland California and also opened at the Sundance Film Festival in 2012.

Chris Johnson is currently a full Professor of Photography at the California College of the Arts.