We recently learned about Paul Johnson, a graphic designer, photographer and land artist based in Minneapolis, whose work captures some of the most beautiful aspects of nature. He started creating in the outdoors when he was a child, making designs in the sand or dirt, eventually picking up a camera as an adult to capture the beauty of the outdoors. He recently returned to making art using found items in nature, working with stop motion animation to document his earthworks and bring them to life. We caught up with Paul to learn more about his photography and his captivating pieces which truly animate the outdoors.
Q. When did you start taking photos and when did it evolve into your stop motion work?
A. I started taking photos a long time ago, back in high school, and then when I went to Northwest College in Wyoming. I took two years of photography there before switching over to graphic design, but photography has always been my main passion. Nowadays, I’m kind of moving more towards photography rather than design. When I first started making earthworks, I didn’t take photos of them. I would just make little designs when I was a little kid. Seven or eight years ago, I started spending some more time on it and photographing my work, and just in the last year I started experimenting with stop motion.
Q. What kind of camera do you use?
A. I have a Nikon D600 and that’s the majority of what the stop motion videos are shot on, but there’s actually a couple of them that are just on the iPhone.
Q. It must take an incredible amount of patience to do the stop motion work. How long does it take you to put those pieces together and what does the process entail?
A. It usually takes around an hour and a half to three hours to do the initial arranging. I guess it probably does take some patience, but for me, it’s such a relaxing thing to do. It’s a time when I don’t need to think about anything else and I’m in that flow state. It’s almost kind of meditative, so the time goes by really fast. After creating the initial design, it takes another couple of hours putting it together.
Q. Is there any other gear that you use to animate?
A. It’s really just a camera and tripod. I try not to use any other tools, but there are a couple where I used some light sources. There’s one nighttime stop motion piece, and in that one, each exposure is 30 seconds. During that 30 seconds, I would use a lighter to create sparks in the frame, and then I would move whatever needed to be moved, place the lighter wherever it fit into the pattern of movement, and spark it again. I think I’m going to do more of that.
Q. What other materials do you use for your stop motion animations?
A. It’s always stuff that’s been found right in the area. I use snow, rocks, pieces of grass and cattail, and leaves. Just kind of standard stuff that you can find outside.
Q. Where do you draw your inspiration from, and are there any artists who have influenced your work?
A. Yeah, everyone always says these pieces remind them of Andy Goldsworthy. His work is really cool and when I first discovered it, I was kind of amazed because I realized there were other people out there who were doing this. Before, when I would do these arrangements as a kid, I didn’t really think much of it and then I saw there were these guys who are out here, too. I also like Robert Smithson, the guy who did the Spiral Jetty, and more recently, there’s Simon Beck, who does those enormous patterns in the snow by just stepping them out. I love seeing people manipulating the natural world like that in a noninvasive way.
Q. We think you have an outstanding way of capturing the beauty of nature in your photos and in your stop motion work. What do you like most about working in the outdoors, and how does the environment around you inspire your work?
A. My favorite part is just being out, away from distractions and civilization, even though most of those locations are within the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area. There are a lot of parks around here with a good amount of acreage where you can really get away from traffic and noise. It seems like you’re really far out there, even though you’re just a half hour away from the city. I grew up in North Dakota and then I lived in Montana and Wyoming for quite a few years, so I kind of need an outside-of-the-city fix every so often. Actually, pretty often like every weekend or every other weekend. Going out and doing these things in the elements is a good way to reset. It’s a centering experience to listen to the birds and the wind. There’s something pretty calming about it.
Q. The photos you took of the aurora events were really amazing. Can you tell us the story behind taking those photos?
A. For the last couple years, I’ve been really interested in capturing the aurora, and they don’t happen here quite as often as in Iceland, Scandinavia or Canada. However, when they do come this far south, they are usually pretty powerful, so I monitor a couple of apps like Aurora Forecast, which gives you an estimate of solar wind speed and the predicted aurora level. That night, it looked like it was going to be a really big event, so a couple of friends and I drove a half hour north and set up a spot next to a lake. It was the best aurora I’ve ever seen. It was really something. The times I’ve seen it before, there’s kind of a strip along the horizon or some ribbony curtains that are maybe a little bit overhead, but this was really the entire dome of the sky. It was covered in splashing, amazing aurora. It was quite the experience.
Check out our gallery and the video below to take a look at Paul’s powerful photos and stop motion pieces.
Images and video by Paul Johnson.
xx Alex