Leigh Johnson exhibition, New York
(Image credit: Leigh Johnson)

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.

Hatch

(Image credit: Leigh Johnson)

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.

ADDRESS

The Journal Gallery
168 North 1st St
Brooklyn, NY, 11211

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Harriet Lloyd-Smith was the Arts Editor of Wallpaper*, responsible for the art pages across digital and print, including profiles, exhibition reviews, and contemporary art collaborations. She started at Wallpaper* in 2017 and has written for leading contemporary art publications, auction houses and arts charities, and lectured on review writing and art journalism. When she’s not writing about art, she’s making her own.