Tanya Johnson

Tanya Johnson is a photographer whose work examines transitory narratives through still life and abstraction. Her practice is grounded in the observation that all things shift over time, including objects, language, and perception itself. What once feels fixed gradually alters, breaks down, or disappears, and her work attends to these subtle transformations as both subject and method.

Working with alternative photographic processes, Johnson uses staged environments and controlled light to explore how images form through interaction rather than static capture. In recent work, spoken language becomes material, shaped by breath, vibration, and light. Words are translated across physical states, moving from sound into visual form, where they fragment, stretch, and resist stable meaning. The photograph becomes less a record and more a site where perception is tested and reconfigured.

Drawing from scientific methodologies, she approaches image-making as a form of investigation. These methods are not used to produce clarity, but to examine how understanding is constructed through embodied experience. Attention and care operate as both conceptual framework and working strategy, guiding a process that values repetition, sensitivity, and the accumulation of small perceptual shifts.

Johnson received her BFA in Graphic Design with a minor in Art History from the University of South Carolina in 2024 and is currently an MFA candidate at Clemson University. Alongside her studio practice, she is committed to teaching and community engagement, supporting accessible approaches to art education that emphasize experimentation, observation, and critical inquiry.