Aaron Johanson Vita

Publications
1976 Sunset Magazine
1985 Pentax Asahi Magazine
1985 Yamanashi Faces, (Book) Sankei Shimbun Press, Japan
1987 The Oregonian Newspaper, Northwest section (5-page main feature)
1995 Nihon Camera Magazine
1996 Left Bank Magazine, Blue Heron Press
1999 Nihon Camera Magazine
2022 Subject and Object, self-published book of people involved in the arts

Collections
1999 City of Portland/Multnomah County Portable Art Works Collection
1999 Polaroid Deviant Image Library
Portland Art Museum, Portland, Oregon
Hallie Ford Museum of Art, Salem, Oregon

Exhibitions
1984 Canon Salon, Tokyo, Japan -- one-person exhibit
1985 Nikon Salon, Tokyo, Japan -- one-person exhibit
1986 Yamanashi Prefectural Museum of Art, Yamanashi, Japan -- one-person exhibit
1992 Tokoro Gallery, Hokkaido, Japan -- one-person exhibit
1993 Inax Photo Gallery, Hokkaido, Japan -- one-person exhibit
1996 Macri Gallery, Portland, Oregon -- group invitational
2000 Alycia Duckler Gallery, Portland, Oregon -- two-person show
2003 BlackFish Gallery, Portland, Oregon -- 2 works, invitational group show
2005 Mark Woolley Gallery, Portland, Oregon -- invitation group show
2006 Clackamas Community College, Clackamas, Oregon -- invitational group show
2010 Portland Community College, North View gallery, Portland, Oregon -- one person
2010 Marylhurst Art Gym, Clackamas, Oregon -- invitational group show
2011 Blackfish Backroom Gallery, Portland, Oregon
2019 New Members Show, Blackfish Gallery, Portland, Oregon
2021 Two-person show, Blackfish Gallery, Portland, Oregon

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About myself:

I began photographing with a gift-camera at the age of 16. It wasn't until my last year at the University of Oregon that a class taught by Willie Osterman stimulated my interest in photography as a career. During Spring break he took several students to visit Ansel Adams, tour his home and darkroom and have our portfolios critiqued. That clinched it for me; I knew then what I wanted to do in life.

After college I apprenticed for several years in a large commercial photography studio in Portland. Following substantial years of travel that require more story telling than this space allows, I was hired by a Japanese publishing firm as the only foreign staff photographer. My assignments took me throughout Japan. It was a dream job in many respects, but in 1995 I decided that unless I was to live the rest of my life in Japan I had to establish myself in the USA. So I returned to my home town of Portland, Oregon and opened a commercial studio, taking on newspaper and magazine work and striving to accommodate anything that would fit through the doors of my studio. Eventually I came to specialize in photography of artwork.