surreal photomanipulation by erik johansson

all images courtesy of erik johansson

 

 

 

as a professional still-life photographer, erik johansson has worked with brands such as adobe, google, microsoft, volvo, and national geographic — but you will probably recognize him from the personal work that he frequently shares online: the swedish photoshop artist and story teller’s distorted reality compositions.

making

 

 

 

johansson is based in berlin, germany. he picked up his interest for retouching while studying computer engineering. he is as much a photographer as a retoucher which enables him to create almost anything that you can imagine. having an understanding of each step of the process gives him total control of the whole work process from sketch to final image to ensure a high quality realistic result. stock photos don’t really work for him, as he wants to have almost the same perspective in every of his images, a similar light atmosphere. that is why he shoots them all on purpose. often he combines more than two photos together.

breaking_up
breaking up

walk_a_way
‘walk a way’ is his newest work

leaving_home
leaving home

closing_out
closing out

 

 

 

see the making of ‘closing out’, where he shares layer-by-layer breakdowns of the work

 

 

cut_and_fold_designboom
cut and fold

go-your-own-road
go your own road

landfall
landfall

 

 

 

see the making of landfall

 

 

common-sense-crossing
common sense crossing

arms_break_vases_dont
arms break vases don’t

volvo
an anamorphic illusion erik made for volvo at the main station in zürich