Erik Johansson

Let's Leave by Erik Johansson

Erik Johansson, born in 1985, is a full time photographer and retoucher from Sweden. He has worked with Google, Adobe and Microsoft, and is perhaps most well known for his incredibly complex and realistic looking photo manipulations.

"I don’t capture moments, I capture ideas. To me photography is just a way to collect material to realize the ideas in my mind." Erik Johansson 

An artist since he was a child, he got his first digital camera in the year 2000 and is self-taught in both photography and retouching.

"For me the realism has always been very important and it’s a challenge to make a sketch come to life in a photo." Erik Johansson

Let's Leave
Creative Interpretation
Trapped in a dream. She wants to go. She's all ready for it. It's so real to her. But she cannot leave. What she wants is just a dream.

I considered at first that the two women were different people, that someone else was holding her back or giving her false hopes. But the longer I looked, the more I felt they represent the same person. The heart is young and naive, but the mind is older and wiser and sees what is and what cannot be. Yet the mind still wants to dream.

Technical Aspects
The compositing is virtually flawless, though there is something about the image that doesn't look quite right to me. It looks more CG rather than photographic. Perhaps it's the lighting. The clouds and general atmosphere give me the impression of a dark, perhaps stormy scene, but the highlights on the suitcases and bubbles clearly indicate a sun fully visible in the sky to the right. That said, it's clear the overcast sky and the sun being off camera to the right in the direction the girl is facing (and perhaps soon to be travelling) was a deliberate choice when composing this scene.

Colours have been chosen well and all contribute to the story being told by this image. In this scene of muted colours (which is perhaps soon to be left behind), the girl in the red dress stands out and captures the viewer's attention immediately as the main focus of the photo. She is certainly the brightest/lightest part of the image (and not only due to the bubble around her head) which emphasises her happy, hopeful, perhaps dreamy expression which is perhaps about a brighter future or path ahead.

The strong line of the handle of the bubble blower then draws the eye across to the other woman who doesn't stand out as much in her black dress and to the tub of bubble blowing solution beside her, which both complete the story being told by this image. The black dress matches the dark and gloomy atmosphere, both of which seem like they'll be left behind for something brighter ahead, whereas the tub of bubble blowing solution is done in somewhat brighter colours which match the main girl's red dress and the magic of what is about to happen.

The single bubble deliberately placed on the right is a third and final point of reference which completes the scene and balances out the image nicely.