Leigh Johnson exhibition, New York

Young up-and-coming American photographer Leigh Johnson has been on our radar for some time now. Her work featured across eleven pages of our 2007 Design Awards issue (W*96) – not bad considering she only completed her photography MFA at Yale last year.

See more of Leigh Johnson's photographs

Her fresh, raw aesthetic feels at once playful and mature, unassuming but purposeful. Even her simplest pictures compel further scrutiny. Some of her latest work, titled Hard Shoulder, is currently on show at the Journal Gallery in Brooklyn, New York, until November 12 – a series of sombre, almost blank-faced self-portraits that seem to hide as much as they reveal.

A definite name to watch, we thought we’d take the opportunity to showcase some of Johnson’s earlier work alongside images from the current show.

6 November 2008 | Art