Finchley-based artist Craig Johnson shares with Leïla Davaud how growing up with 80s horror films and staging alien invasions in his uncle’s garden blur the lines between art and therapy
To get to know Craig Johnson is to step into his world: not only the real one, where he works as a bladder cancer support worker for Macmillan, but also the world he brings to life through his lens.
A world where a Witch Is Dead under his uncle’s garage door, where everything comes in Three and Craig gets you one step closer to The Crossing.
His camera is the vessel for expressing surreal scenes germinating in his head. Dark, intriguing, fascinating.
Perhaps it was inevitable that Craig would develop an interest in the darker side of photography. As a child, he spent his weekends watching what he describes as “really bad 80s horror films”.
He says: “I love the oddball stuff even more if it’s coupled with stop-motion animation. Tim Burton, for example, is also a big inspiration.”
Craig enjoys playing with light: “Low light, to be exact, and how it reacts to the dark, and the eerie glow it can give to a scene. I think this is how it all started.”
He explains: “In 2003, I was doing victim support in Soho for male victims of sexual assault, and the owner of the community centre where I worked was always organising exhibitions. One day he saw some pictures I’d done of cars at night using slow, ‘splat’ shutter speeds and asked me to exhibit at the centre.
“I had no idea what that meant. All I did was go out with my uncle around Finchley and Barnet, taking pictures of cars through the windscreens with my camera. I’d done it so the light came out like lightning. I called the exhibition The Speed of Lights.”
The exhibition was covered in local newspapers under the headline “Lights, just the trick for Craig.”
The event was a turning point. As Craig puts it: “That’s what set me off into this art world. I went on to study media at Barnet College. I then enrolled at Middlesex University, I did a BA (Hons) in photography and a master’s in moving image and interactive media. Finally, I studied fine art at London College of Communication.”
Then, he moved on to visual experimentation. His work taps mainly into fantasy realms with surreal undertones which offer him, interestingly, a sense of security. “By creating a fantasy world, I feel like I’m in a safe place. I know its limitations, I can’t be let down.”
His experiments with fantasy photography began in North Finchley, where he transformed his uncle’s garden into something otherworldly.
He remembers: “We staged a fake alien invasion. We used smoke, grass and UV lighting, among other things.I took a very old-fashioned camera with the aperture set very small, and absorbed all the ambient light from dusk till dawn for about eight hours. No Photoshop, just set timepieces.”
Called Greenhouse Gas, the piece was published for the London Underground’s Art Below anniversary and put up at Oxford Circus Station.
Johnson considers his art “atypical” and believes its source is his own atypicality. “I’ve suffered from mental health problems, and I have Asperger’s and am neurodivergent. I have compartment syndrome in my legs. I’m not your usual artist.
“But I think it does help me because I can see things outside the box and I can focus really hard on things. It’s like a tunnel-vision sort of way of thinking.”
He continues: “I did a photo competition for Barnet Council a while ago. The theme was recycling. The picture was me in bed with a recycling bin on top of me. I used the shadows to create silhouettes of wine bottles. It ended up on bus stops in Barnet!”
Throughout his life, Craig has found art to be therapeutic. Something to hold on to and to pour his energy into. But he also used it in order to help others.
He explains: “I was a mental health specialist support worker for about seven years. I worked with elderly people with dementia in high-dependency units in Muswell Hill.
“We ended up doing art therapy and it was really successful. They really enjoyed it. It was special to be able to mix my two worlds for a little while. Even in my current job, I can put people in touch with art groups in the community that are for cancer patients. It’s important.”
It seems like light and darkness interact in most aspects of Craig’s life: personal, professional and artistic. Sometimes, he makes them bend to his will, ensuring they respond to each other, and to him. Not simply for his own entertainment, but also for the sake of a little collective sanity.
On top of being busy creating fantasy worlds and supporting patients, he also has multiple sidequests. Some (lots) involve Doctor Who. “It is an obsession, I will admit.”
Recently, it takes the shape of a collaboration with local artist and friend Dayvid Grant, who specialises in ink and surrealist drawings inspired by outsider art.
Johnson says: “I am focusing on this project for now. It is very exciting and it makes for great Christmas gifts…”
See Craig’s latest work on Etsy: https://etsy.me/4j5pcnw
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