Acacia Johnson

Photographer
     
Love, Death, and the Ocean
Location: Anchorage, Alaska
Nationality: USA
Biography: Acacia Johnson is an artist and photographer from Alaska. Drawn to remote places and otherworldly landscapes, her work has focused on the environment, conservation, and the connections between people and place. After receiving a Fulbright grant to... MORE
Private Story
Love, Death, and the Ocean
Copyright Acacia Johnson 2024
Updated May 2013
Topics Dreams/Subconscious, Fine Art, Landscape, Norway, Photography, Water, Yearning

“Turning to face North, face the North, we enter our own subconscious.  Always, in retrospect, the journey North has the quality of dream.” –Margaret Atwood


 This body of work reflects upon the dreamlike, melancholy quality of journeys to the Far North in the darkness of the polar night.  Moving through a winter landscape of subdued color and artificial light, these images explore the way in which a world not governed by conventions of light or time seems to fall into the realm of the magical.

Following the lives and stories of a family in Northern Norway, the three themes of love, death, and the ocean recur frequently, woven into the fabric of this boreal world.  The images are also motivated by these themes on a personal level: my love for this place and these people, a need to capture it before it is changed forever by the inevitability of death, and a fascination with the constant presence of an ever-changing ocean - under the constant gleam of the North Star in an ever-changing sky. 

Exploring notions of longing, nostalgia, and timelessness, this series ultimately examines the way that the dynamic contrasts of the northern landscape cause us to feel, profoundly, the essence of being alive – by the sheer awe of warmth in absence of cold; by fleeting moments of glittering arctic light before the world plunges back into velvety blackness.  

LinkedIn Icon Facebook Icon Twitter Icon
3,718

Also by Acacia Johnson —

Story [Unlisted]

Alaskan Pilots

Acacia Johnson
Story [Unlisted]

Polar Paradox

Acacia Johnson / Nome, Alaska
Story [Unlisted]

To Know The Earth From Above

Acacia Johnson
Story [Unlisted]

RECENT

Acacia Johnson
Story [Unlisted]

Salmon vs. Gold - new

Acacia Johnson
Story [Unlisted]

Visura Takeover - Draft

Acacia Johnson
Story [Unlisted]

Quarantine Diary

Acacia Johnson
Story [Unlisted]

Exploring Denali's Glaciers: No Climbing Required

Acacia Johnson
Story [Unlisted]

Anja Niedringhaus Courage in Photojournalism Award

Acacia Johnson
Story [Unlisted]

Antarctic Snow Algae

Acacia Johnson / Antarctica
Story [Unlisted]

INSTALLATIONS

Acacia Johnson
Story [Unlisted]

Nordic Refuge

Acacia Johnson / Norway
Story [Unlisted]

ARCTIC

Acacia Johnson
Story [Unlisted]

ANTARCTICA

Acacia Johnson / Antarctica
Story [Unlisted]

Boundaries of Life & Stillness

Acacia Johnson / Arctic Bay, NU, Canada
Story [Unlisted]

AIALIK

Acacia Johnson / Alaska
Love, Death, and the Ocean by Acacia Johnson
Sign-up for
For more access