Nikki Johnson, born in Mississippi, has exhibited portraits and documentary photography widely in the United States, Europe and Asia. She holds a MFA in photography from Rochester Institute of Technology as well as a BFA from Mississippi University for Women.
Her pieces depict situations that are alternately inspiring and despairing: visions that can reflect economic disparities, victims of urban malaise lulled into serene contemplation, and cluttered shelves in homes with contents that yield revelations about their owners. Her photographs are loaded with details — portraits of compelling people surrounded by unusual, even humorous elements.
The results of these exchanges between photographer and subject are a collection of exotic documentary, portraiture, and still- life images that embody urban and rural collisions, coded objects, and social explosions.Johnson was the first photographer ever admitted to Henry Street Settlement’s artist in residence program and was also an invited participant in “Fictive Days,” a Berlin art residency. Her photographs included in the show “Back to Haunt the Hell out of You” were described as “disturbing and moving” by New York Times Art in Review writer Holland Cotter. She is also currently half of the collaborative duo Death Under Glass, a project that reveals the artistic merits of images created by microscope during death investigation. Her photographs have been published in Art in America, DIF Magazine,Time Out New York, HYCIDE, and Hustler.
She has published two books with Maekask Editions, Natural History (2010) and We Buy Gold (2013).
Nikki Johnson currently lives in Harlem, New York. Her most recent release is “Black Jelly” a photographic collaboration with poet Melanie Maria Goodreaux.
It available at www.blackjellybook.comShe currently lives in Harlem, New York.
