Chris Johnson (artist)

Johnson is a professor of photography at the California College of the Arts{{Cite web |title=Christopher Johnson |url=https://portal.cca.edu/people/cjohnson/ |access-date=2022-07-18 |website=Cca.edu}} where for 11 years he served as chair of the Photography Program. He has been president of the Board of SF Camerawork,{{Cite web |title=2021 Online Event: Honoring Chris Johnson, Fund A Need Closing Reception |url=https://sfcamerawork.org/2021-online-event-honoring-chris-johnson-fund-a-need-closing-reception |access-date=2022-07-18 |website=SF Camerawork |language=en-US}} director of the Mother Jones International Fund for Documentary Photography, and chair of the City of Oakland's Cultural Affairs Commission. Johnson is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Oakland Museum of California{{Cite web |title=Board of Trustees {{!}} Oakland Museum of California |url=https://museumca.org/board-trustees |access-date=2022-07-18 |website=Oakland Museum of California}} and is President of the Board of The Alliance for Media Arts and Culture.{{Cite web |title=Chris Johnson |url=https://www.thealliance.media/profile/chris-johnson-2/ |access-date=2022-07-18 |website=The Alliance |language=en-US}}

Johnson is the author of The Practical Zone System: for Film and Digital Photography (1999); currently in its sixth edition.{{cite web |title=The Practical Zone System for Film and Digital Photography |url=https://www.dpreview.com/articles/8751511538/the-practical-zone-system-for-film-and-digital-photography |website=Digital Photography Review}} His public art works and projects are included in Art as Social Practice: Technologies for Change (Routledge, 2022).

The original Question Bridge project emerged when, in 1996, Johnson was commissioned by the Museum of Photographic Arts in San Diego to produce a video piece as part of a multi-media exhibition entitled Re:Public curated by Richard Bolton.{{cite web |last1=Waloff |first1=Mariel |date=10 February 2012 |title=At the Oakland Museum, Question:Bridge facilitates a high-tech conversation among black men |url=https://oaklandnorth.net/2012/02/10/at-the-oakland-museum-questionbridge-facilitates-a-high-tech-conversation-among-black-men/ |website=Oakland North}} The result was a rough experimental project intended to show how video-mediated questions and answers might provide fresh insights into familiar concepts like "race" and "class" when this approach is applied to people who nominally belong to the same racial demographic.{{Cite web |last=Waloff |first=Mariel |date=2012-02-10 |title=At the Oakland Museum, Question:Bridge facilitates a high-tech conversation among black men |url=https://oaklandnorth.net/2012/02/10/at-the-oakland-museum-questionbridge-facilitates-a-high-tech-conversation-among-black-men/ |access-date=2022-11-01 |website=Oakland North |language=en-US}}

In collaboration with artists Hank Willis Thomas, Kamal Sinclair and Bayeté Ross Smith, Question Bridge: Black Males is a five-channel video installation platform for black men of all ages and backgrounds to ask and candidly respond to questions that are rarely discussed in public. Through video-mediated question-and-answer exchange, diverse members of this "demographic" bridge economic, political, geographic, and generational divisions. The Question Bridge campaign seeks to represent and redefine Black male identity in America.{{cite web |last1=Ryce |first1=Walter |title=A photographer and professor uses video in the interest of increasing humanity. |url=https://www.montereycountyweekly.com/entertainment/art/a-photographer-and-professor-uses-video-in-the-interest-of-increasing-humanity/article_dc2d084c-2fbe-11e9-9cd4-c731c7ba6be9.html |website=Monterey County Weekly |date=14 February 2019 |language=en}}{{cite web |last1=Thomas |first1=Hank Willis |date=23 September 2014 |title="What Is Common to All of Us?" Redefining Black Male Identity |url=https://creativetimereports.org/2014/09/23/hank-willis-thomas-question-bridge-redefining-black-male-identity/ |website=Creative Time Reports}}

A book of essays titled Question Bridge: Black Males in America was published by Aperture in 2015.{{cite journal |title=Question Bridge: Black Males in America and Question Bridge: Black Males |url=http://www.caareviews.org/reviews/3301 |journal=CAA Reviews}} The exhibit, which was named by Artnet as among 100 artworks that defined the decade, toured to more than thirty organizations.{{Cite web |last=Davis |first=Ben |date=2019-12-31 |title=The 100 Works of Art That Defined the Decade, Ranked: Part 3 |url=https://news.artnet.com/opinion/100-artworks-decade-part-3-1738743 |access-date=2022-11-01 |website=Artnet News |language=en-US}}

• In My Life: Portraits by Chris Johnson, Monterey Museum of Art, 2022{{Cite web |date=2022-07-06 |title=In My Life: Portraits by Chris Johnson {{!}} Monterey Museum of Art |url=https://montereyart.org/upcoming-exhibitions/chris-johnson-in-my-life/ |access-date=2022-10-29 |website=Monterey Museum of Art {{!}}}}

• Reflections in Black: Art and Activism, African American Photographs from the Smithsonian Institution, curated by Deborah Willis, The Luckman Gallery, California State University, Los Angeles, 2002 and toured{{Cite web |date=2013-10-22 |title="Reflections in Black" |url=https://www.calstatela.edu/univ/ppa/newsrel/reflectblack.htm |access-date=2022-10-29 |website=Cal State LA |language=en}}

• Question Bridge: Black Males, Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, New York City, 2012; Portland Art Museum, Portland, Oregon, 2019/20; Oakland Museum of California, Oakland, California, 2012;{{Cite web |last=Waloff |first=Mariel |date=2012-02-10 |title=At the Oakland Museum, Question:Bridge facilitates a high-tech conversation among black men |url=https://oaklandnorth.net/2012/02/10/at-the-oakland-museum-questionbridge-facilitates-a-high-tech-conversation-among-black-men/ |access-date=2022-10-29 |website=Oakland North |language=en-US}} Harvey Gantt Center, Charlotte, NC;{{Cite web |title=Question Bridge: Black Males |url=https://www.ganttcenter.org/exhibitions/question-bridge-black-males/ |access-date=2022-10-30 |website=The Gantt Center |date=11 August 2018 |language=en}} Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington DC{{Cite web |title=Question Bridge: Black Males {{!}} Corcoran |url=https://www.corcoran.org/exhibitions/question-bridge-black-males |access-date=2022-10-30 |website=www.corcoran.org}}

• 2015: International Center of Photography, Infinity Award: New Media for Question Bridge: Black Males

Johnson's work is held in the following permanent collections:

• Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, New York City: a DVD and hard drive from Question Bridge: Black Males (as of 25 October 2022)
• Center for Creative Photography, at the University of Arizona: unspecified{{Cite web |title=J |url=https://ccp.arizona.edu/artists/J |access-date=2022-10-30 |website=Center for Creative Photography |language=en-US}}
• Museum of Fine Arts, Houston: 1 print (as of 1 November 2022){{Cite web |title=Results {{!}} Search Objects {{!}} The MFAH Collections |url=https://emuseum.mfah.org/search/%22chris%20johnson%22 |access-date=2022-10-30 |website=emuseum.mfah.org}}
• Oakland Museum of California, Oakland California: Question Bridge: Black Males (as of 1 November 2022){{Cite web |last=Fancher |first=Lou |date=2017-09-28 |title=Question Bridge Returns to OMCA |url=https://www.alamedamagazine.com/question-bridge-returns-to-omca/ |access-date=2022-10-29 |website=www.alamedamagazine.com |language=en-US}}

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