David Johnson’s work has settled at the intersection of society, architecture, and the individual. Multiple bodies of work demonstrate ways in which space can affect personality and how individual’s impact environments they occupy, even momentarily. Most projects transpire in a long-term documentary approach that is a visual investigation utilizing multiple image-making strategies, which reveals commonalities of everyday human-made environments. Whether it be an office, an art museum, a campsite or the human form, David is interested in visually articulating questions that allow the viewer to consider the spaces they inhabit or briefly traverse. The hope is then that viewers might become more self-aware.

David is a lens-based artist, educator, and curator. He received his MFA from Washington University in St. Louis and BFA from Texas Christian University. In 2019, Johnson’s first book, Wig Heavier Than a Boot, a collaborative project with poet Philip Matthews, was published by Kris Graves Projects; the following year, the project was featured at the Fotofest Biennial in Houston. In 2021, the University of Texas Press published Johnson’s second book, It Can Be This Way Always: Images from the Kerrville Folk Festival. 

His photographs have been exhibited internationally, in venues that include the Contemporary Art Museum in Saint Louis, the Mildred Lane Kemper Museum, the Fort Wayne Museum of Art, the National Building Museum in Washington D.C., Rathaus in Stuttgart, Germany, and Blue Star Contemporary in San Antonio. SKYLARK EDITIONS, Wendy’s Subway and Ain’t Bad have featured David’s work within their printed publications. Online sites featuring Johnson’s work include Texas Monthly, Texas Highways, the Humble Arts Foundation, Lenscratch, Fraction Magazine, and Float Magazine. 

Johnson is currently an Assistant Professor of Photography at Coastal Carolina University and has previously taught at the University of Iowa, Washington University in St. Louis, and Saint Louis University. In 2023, he co-founded Print Study for All and has curated exhibitions for the Center of Creative Arts and the International Photography Hall of Fame and Museum in St Louis. Grants for creative endeavors include the Regional Arts Commission and Great Rivers Visual Arts Award from the Gateway Foundation in St. Louis. Johnson has been a resident artist at Gedok in Stuttgart, Germany, and at the Cité Internationale Des Arts in Paris, France.