Media Kit
Richard Johnson, Photographer
Introduction
Based in Toronto, Canada and operating virtually, we represent the work of artist Richard Johnson (1957 — 2021). Managed by Richard’s lifelong partner, Lucie Bergeron-Johnson, the gallery’s mandate is to ensure that Richard’s work continues to be seen, enjoyed, and also made available to institutions and collectors.
Through exhibitions, social media, and a newsletter, we continue to share from the extensive collection of images Richard created. His work has been presented in numerous solo exhibitions across Canada, and been recognized through publications, such as National Geographic in 2019, and awards, including the Ontario Arts Council Grant for Emerging Visual Artists in 2010. His Ice Huts series is currently on display in the connector tunnel at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport, Terminal 3.
Richard’s photography is included in celebrated corporate collections such as TD Bank in Toronto, Bank of Montreal, Scotiabank, McCarthy Tetrault, Aviva Insurance and Foreign Affairs Canada, where numerous Ice Huts and Ice Villages are exhibited in Canadian Embassies. His work is also in private collections across the world, including in Australia, Denmark, France, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
Images from all series are available for purchase as limited edition prints.
I have always been fascinated with small structures. My earliest recollection of shelter was as a 6 year old growing up in Trinidad. It was a guard house for our neighbour. No more than three walls and a lean to roof, it was a simple solution to shade the harsh sun and protect from tropical rains. These shelters, built by individuals with available materials, inspired me to take notice. I moved to Montreal in the sixties and built snow forts and backyard igloos. In summertime, I rallied with friends to rope together tree houses, without fear of heights or plans.
— Richard Johnson
Key Facts
Born of Canadian parents, Richard spent his formative years in Trinidad, Montréal, and Ottawa before settling in Toronto with his partner Lucie.
Richard’s first career was in interior design before a successful 25 years as an architectural photographer in Toronto.
A lifelong photographer, Richard began his formal fine art photography practice in the late 1980s.
Richard’s work from several series is on continuous exhibition at White Wall North at The Framing Depot in Toronto.
Images in all series are available as Limited Edition prints, unframed or framed for shipping internationally.
Richard’s key influence was German masters Bernd and Hilla Becher and their systematic documentation of industrial landscapes.
More About Each Series
Four series — Ice Huts, Ice Hut Grids, Ice Villages, and Storm — record individual ice huts and communities of ice fishing across all ten provinces of Canada. Richard worked on these series from 2008 to 2021.
In 2019, Richard turned his attention to contemporary urban architecture, specifically reflective glass facades. His Jeté and Allegro series are delightful explorations of light and colour.
Richard began to photograph the Root Cellars series in 2018 during a visit to Newfoundland. He had plans to develop the series further. Both the pandemic and his leukemia diagnosis prevented him from completing this work.
ICE HUTS
Series Statement
Richard Johnson’s remarkable photographic series records almost 1,000 ice huts used for fishing across the frozen lakes, bays, and rivers of all ten provinces of Canada. Ice fishing is part of our history — from indigenous people to early European settlers who fished through the ice to survive a hostile wilderness. In a few short generations, this mode of survival has become an annual sport with a culture founded on the hunt for food and the resulting social bonds.
In his methodical survey, Johnson captured hundreds of variations of these temporary, charmingly modest shelters. His photographs reveal the functional and aesthetic similarities and differences of this renegade architecture that verges on a vernacular folk art tradition.
The huts must be weather-resistant and transportable, giving basic shelter and access to the ice beneath. The designs are very region-specific. In Saskatchewan, which has the highest per capita ownership of pick-up trucks in Canada, the huts are sized to fit onto the truck’s bed. In Ontario, sheet metal siding is used for its light weight, which eases the effort of dragging the structures on and off the ice with snowmobiles. In British Columbia, the abundance of fish makes the process fast enough that the need for shelter is modest. In Quebec, ice fishing is a much more social experience and villages of huts, that even include stores, are common.
Standing on frozen lakes and rivers and using a tripod-mounted large format digital camera, Johnson captured ice huts with a straight-on orientation, overcast sky for even light, and a chest-high horizon line. His approach and composition maximizes the visual impact of each hut and ensures consistency across the series. Set on a foundation that cannot last, deliberately courting the vagaries of weather, the ice huts captured in Johnson’s series are a lesson in jerry-built hope and a colourful symbol of perseverance in the face of winter’s challenges.
Key Facts
Images captured from 2007 to 2021
No. of images in series: 1178
Ice Huts from all ten provinces of Canada are represented.
Before he became ill, Johnson was beginning to photograph Ice Huts in the United States.
Printed Images are available in 3 sizes in Limited Editions:
o 40 x 40 inches / Edition of 3
o 31 x 31 inches / Edition of 15
o 20 x 20 inches / Edition of 25
ICE HUT GRIDS
Series Statement
Each image in this series consists of 9 ice hut photographs arranged in a 3 by 3 grid. There are 11 image grids in total, one for each of Canada’s 10 provinces and one to represent Canada. Richard Johnson carefully curated the grids from the extensive collection of images in his Ice Huts series.
Key Facts
Grid images created from 2007 to 2017
No. of images in series: 11
Grids 1 to 10 represent ice huts in each of Canada’s ten provinces
Grid 11 represents 9 ice huts from locations across Canada
Printed Images are available in 3 sizes in Limited Editions:
o 40 x 40 inches / Edition of 3
o 31 x 31 inches / Edition of 15
o 20 x 20 inches / Edition of 25
ICE VILLAGES
Series Statement
Part of Richard Johnson’s larger project documenting Ice Huts, the Ice Hut Villages images are dramatic panoramas showing groupings of ice huts in the context of the surrounding natural winter landscape. These seasonal communities can include everything from stores, restaurants, and even hockey rinks for children and hydro poles to illuminate the villages at night.
Key Facts
No. of images in series: 290
Images captured from 2010 to 2020
Printed Images are available in 3 sizes in Limited Editions:
o 42 x 96 inches / Edition of 3
o 27 x 60 inches / Edition of 6
o 13.5 x 30 inches / Edition of 18
STORM
Series Statement
Part of Johnson’s larger project documenting Ice Huts, the series Storm concentrates on the visual effect of one winter weather event on a small community on Chaleur Bay in northern New Brunswick. Colourful shapes seem to emerge from the horizonless landscape of driving snow. Birds hover overhead waiting for fishermen’s scraps. Tarpaulin enclosures flap like weathered flags in the relentless wind. These evocative images reveal the harsh reality of the winter season on ice.
Key Facts
No. of images in series: 8
Images captured in 2012
Printed Images are available in 3 sizes in Limited Editions:
o 40 x 50 inches / Edition of 3
o 31 x 39 inches / Edition of 5
o 20 x 25 inches / Edition of 10
JETE
Series Statement
The Jeté series consists of 9 images that present one of the world’s most recognized and documented structure in a delightfully different light. During Paris Fashion Week in 2019, Richard Johnson saw the Eiffel Tower reflected in a temporary pavilion that was covered in a grid of mirrored mylar squares. Stunned by the shimmering and scrambled effect, he photographed the reflections over three days. Jeté references the movement in ballet in which the dancer is airborne for a fragment of a second, a moment as magical and fleetingly as those captured in these photographs.
Key Facts
No. of images in series: 9
Images captured in 2019
Printed Images are available in 3 sizes in Limited Editions:
o 60 x 75 inches / Edition of 2
o 40 x 50 inches / Edition of 4
o 24 x 30 inches / Edition of 6
ALLEGRO
Series Statement
Referencing the brisk pace of urban life and inspired by the musical composition Mad Rush by Philip Glass, the Allegro series captures the dynamic visual qualities of modern glass buildings. After moving to a high floor of a downtown condominium in Toronto’s financial district, Johnson became fascinated with views of reflective building facades as seen from an elevated perspective. Above the ground level, the planes of glazed cladding take on a life of their own: light, shadows, sky, clouds, and fragmented shapes from neighbouring towers create appealing, abstract patterns. Like an orchestra of movement across the city’s glass, Allegro reveals unexpected beauty in the buildings that surround us.
Key Facts
No. of images in series: 24
Images taken from 2018 to 2019
Images taken in Toronto, Montréal, and Paris
Printed Images are available in 3 sizes in Limited Editions:
o 60 x 75 inches / Edition of 2
o 40 x 50 inches / Edition of 4
o 24 x 30 inches / Edition of 6
ROOT CELLARS
Series Statement
While working in Newfoundland in 2012, Richard Johnson became intrigued by the province’s root cellars. Before refrigeration, root cellars ensured access to a healthy diet of food like potatoes during long, harsh winters. To him, the cellars were indigenous oddities; efficiently built and curiously anthropomorphic. They also fit conceptually into his life-long fascination with small structures built out of necessity and usually by hand. In 2018, he returned to photograph them over three weeks in the spring before the growth of the tall grasses that conceal them, capturing 115 cellars in total.
The simplicity of the root cellars’ form has enabled them to last for over a century, and makes them a compelling image of survival. Though Johnson was focused on the structures, his photographs also captured Newfoundland’s hilled terrain. When the images are placed side by side, the profile of the landscape aligns to provide a satisfying sense of the topography.
Key Facts
No. of images in series: 115
Images captured in 2018
Printed Images are available in 2 sizes in Limited Editions:
o 40 x 50 inches / Edition of 3
o 24 x 30 inches / Edition of 6
Selected Press
National Post, December 11, article commemorating Richard’s work, 2021
National Geographic, “The Lure of Cold Places”, 2019
Canadian Architect, “Allegro”, 2019
The London Sunday Times Magazine, “Spectrum: hut and cold”, 2016
Smithsonian Magazine, “Portraits of Canada’s Ice Fishing Huts”, 2016
Feature Shoot, “Canada’s Tiny Ice Huts Will Make You Shiver”, 2016
Cottage Life Magazine, “This gorgeous gallery of Canadian ice-fishing huts will have you reeling”, 2015
Dwell, “Architecture Off the Grid: Quirky Ice Huts Dot Canada's Frozen Lakes”, 2015
CBC Radio, “Ice-fishing shacks across Canada documented by photographer”, 2015
Radio Canada International, “Ice-fishing huts in Canada”, 2015
BBC Radio Climate, “Being Cold”, 2015
The New York Times, “Freeze Frames of Canada’s Ice Huts”, 2014
Globe & Mail Arts Review, ”Out on the Ice, No Two Huts are the Same”, 2014
Globe & Mail Arts Review, “Richard Johnson’s Exhibit ‘Ice Villages’”, 2014
Selected Exhibitions
Toronto Pearson Airport, GTAA Terminal 3, Pier A Tunnel, Ice Huts & Ice Villages, Toronto, 2019 — present
Vancouver Art Gallery, Cabin Fever group show, Ice Huts & Ice Villages, 2018
Lester B Pearson Lobby, Ottawa, FACC Collection, Ice Huts Solo show, 2010
Toronto Image Works Gallery, Toronto, Ice Villages Solo show, 2009 + 2010
Rotunda Gallery, Kitchener City Hall, Ice Huts Solo show, 2009
Toronto Pearson Airport, GTAA Terminal One, Toronto, Folk Architecture – Ice Huts Solo show, 2009
Toronto Pearson Airport, GTAA Terminal One, Toronto, Ice Huts - Coming Home group show, 2008
Contact Festival group show of juried winners, Toronto, Ice Huts, 2008
Contact
Get in touch for further information and enquiries about image use for publication.