About
Åsa Johannesson is an artist working across photography, installation, and writing. Her practice concerns the relationship between queerness, representation, and material knowledge production. She has exhibited her work internationally, including at Centrum för fotografi (Stockholm), Queer Britain (London), Landskrona Foto (Landskrona), Dyson Gallery (London) and FutureLab (Shanghai). Åsa’s work has been written about in the books Photography: A Queer History and Museums, Sexuality, and Gender Activism, and the journals Philosophy of Photography, British Journal of Photography, Yes & No, and Zine. She is based in London, UK and her hometown Växjö, Sweden.
With her writing Åsa intersects theoretical concepts from feminist and queer theory, new materialism with the logic of studio practice. Her first book, the research monograph Queer Methodology for Photography, was published by Routledge in February 2024. Recent essays include ‘Theorising Skin: Queer Readings of Photography’ and ‘Nonbinary Difference: Dionysus, Arianna, and the Fictive Arts of Museum Photography’ (co-written with Clair Le Couteur). Åsa has written about her photographic practice for Ilford. Her first collection of poetry, And I wanted to see it: my queerness in the best light, is a collaborative work produced together with her sitters and is forthcoming (publisher TBC).
Åsa has an AHRC/TECHNE funded PhD from the Royal College of Art, London and is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Brighton. She is the recipient of the following awards: AHRC TECHNE Doctoral Training Stipend, The Swedish Arts Grants Committee one year art grant, Great Minds Sabbatical Award, Art Council England DYCP grant, Royal College of Art Research, Knowledge Exchange and Innovation (RKEI) Scholarship.
Contact
Curriculum vitae
Education
2014–19
PhD Photography Research, Royal College of Art, London, UK
2007–09
MA Photography, Royal College of Art, London, UK
2003–06
BA (Hons) Photographic Arts, University of Westminster, London, UK
Solo exhibitions
2023
The Queering of Photography, Centrum for Fotografi, Stockholm, Sweden
2019
The Queering of Photography, Dyson Gallery, London, UK
2016
Looking Out, Looking In, Landskrona Foto, Landskrona, Sweden
2016
Looking Out, Looking In, Photography and the Archive Research Centre, London, United Kingdom
2015
Looking Out, Looking In, MOCA London, London, UK
2015
The White Gaze, Växjö Konsthall, Växjö, Sweden
2013
The Boy & The Twins, Gothenburg Biennale, Gallery Panncentralen, Mariestad, Sweden
2011
The Boy & The Twins, Fotogalleriet format, Malmö, Sweden
2011
The Boy & The Twins, Smålands museum, Växjö, Sweden
Selected group exhibitions
2023
Queereal Secretions, Annex Gallery, Glasgow, UK
2021
Peckham 24, Copeland Gallery, London, UK
2020
With Monochrome Eyes, Borough Road Gallary, London, UK
2019
The Urgency of the Arts, FutureLab, Shanghai, China
2019
SHOW RCA, Royal College of Art, London, UK
2019
Entanglement, The Opera, Royal College of Art, London, UK
2018
Tbilisi Night of Photography, Fabrika, Tbilisi, Georgia
2018
FLIGHT MODE, Assembly Point, London, UK
2018
Flow & Flux, Triangle Space, Chelsea College of Art, London, UK
2017
Daybreak , Safehouse 1 & 2, London, UK
2017
Sight Unseen, Dyson Gallery, London, UK
2014
8+1 konstnärer, Smålands museum, Kulturparken Småland, Växjö, Sweden
2012
TRANSportrait, Minshar Gallery, Tel Aviv-Jaffa, Israel
2010
Photo-ID, Hereford Photography Festival, Hereford, UK
2009
Shadow of a Doubt, Galerie Michel Jourmiac, Paris, France
2009
Photo ID, The Forum, Norwich, UK
2009
SHOW RCA 2009, Royal College of Art, London, UK
2009
Surfacing, 12 Star Gallery, European Commission Office, London, UK
2008
The Terry O'Neill Award 2008, Fulham Palace, London, UK
2008
Moment, Riga Art Space, Riga, Latvia
2008
NICE08, The Novas Contemporary Urban Centre, Liverpool, UK
2008
The Other, International Talent Support, Trieste, Italy
2007
Fellow Travellers, Salford Museum & Art Gallery, Salford, UK
Academic posts
2018–
Senior Lecturer in Photography, University of Brighton
2019–22
Associate Lecturer in Photography, London College of Communication
2019–21
Lecturer in Photography, HDK-Valand, University of Gothenburg
2013–22
Visiting Lecturer in Fine Art and Photography, Royal College of Art
2011–19
Lecturer in Photography, University of Westminster
2012–13
Teaching Fellow in Fine Art Media, Slade School of Fine Art
2011–14
Lecturer in Digital Photography, South Bank University
2009–12
Research Assistant, Royal College of Art
Publications
2024
‘The Best Light’ in The Urgency of Queer Art+. Edited by Dirk Reynders. Pennsylvania: Owl Publishing (forthcoming)
2024
Queer Methodology for Photography, New York and London: Routledge
2023
‘Theorising Skin: Queer Readings of Photography’, in Queereal Secretions, Glasgow: Glasgow School of Art (2023)
2021
‘Polaroid Skins: The Queering of Photography’ in Yes & No. Issue Vol. 3, No. 3
2020
‘Nonbinary Difference: Dionysus, Arianna, and the Fictive Arts of Museum Photography’ (co-written with Clair Le Couteur) in Museums, Sexuality, and Gender Activism. Edited by Joshua G. Adair and Amy K. Levin. New York and London: Routledge
2019
‘The Queering of Photography: A Generative Encounter, PhD Thesis’, London: Royal College of Art.
2012
‘Photography and the Fanatical Gaze in Åsa Johannesson’s Belonging’ Philosophy of Photography (co-written with Daniel C. Blight). Edited by Daniel Rubinstein and Andrew Fisher. Vol. 3, No. 1, London: Intellect Journals
2010
The Boy & The Twins. Self-published photobook with support from Self Publish Be Happy.
Selected conference papers
2019
‘The Queering of Photography,’ Diversifying the Portrait: Image and Identity, University of Oxford, Oxford, 17 May 2019
2018
‘Looking Out, Looking In’, A Carnival of Entanglement, Practice Research Symposium, Royal College of Art, London, 25 Jan 2018
2018
‘Turn’, Atmosphere, Practice Research Symposium, University of Surrey, Guildford, Jan, 2018
2016
‘The Gendering of the Photographic, Writing Photographs, Symposium, London College of Communication. London, UK, 1 Jun 2016
2015
‘Queer Passing and Queer Aesthetics’, Disrupting Visibility: The Politics of Passing, Conference, Goldsmiths College, London, UK,12 Jun 2015
2015
‘Failed Queerness’, The Subjectivity and Feminisms Research, Symposium, Chelsea College of Art. London, UK, 12 February 2015
Selected articles
2018
‘I’m Creating Uncertainty’ by Marika Kochiashvili in Indigo Magazine, Issue 34, Georgia
2017
‘Å’ by Cassius Matthias in Yes & No, Issue 03:01, UK
2017
‘Looking Out, Looking In,’ by Rose Robertson, Zine, Issue 02:01, UK
2014
‘Queer in Practice’ by Laura Guy in Source Photographic Review, Issue 79, UK
2012
‘Masculine’ in Capricious, Issue 12
2009
‘Portraits of Him’ in Monica, Issue 1, UK
2008
‘Portraits of Him’ in Hot Shoe, Issue 157, UK
2008
‘Portraits of Him’ in Chroma, Issue 7, UK
Awards
2022
Great Minds Sabbatical Award, University of Brighton
2022
The Swedish Arts Grants Committee one year art grant
2021
Art Council England DYCP grant
2018
Helge Ax:son Johansons Stiftelse Scholarship
2017
Royal College of Art Research, Knowledge Exchange and Innovation (RKEI) Scholarship
2017
Stiftelsen Petersenska Hemmet Scholarship
2016
The MEAD Residency Award, British School at Rome
2016
Helge Ax:son Johansons Stiftelse Scholarship
2014
AHRC TECHNE Doctoral Training Stipend
2014
Fabrikör J.L Eklunds Hantverksstiftelse
2014
Stiftelsen Petersenska Hemmet Scholarship
2014
Växjö Stads Jubileumsfond Scholarship
2010
Stiftelsen Gunvor Kamkes och Sven Joanns Minnesfonds Scholarship
2009
Shortlisted for Deutsche Bank Award
2008
Shortlisted for Leica Photography Prize
2008
Shortlisted for The Terry O’Neill Award
2008
Fredrika-Bremer-Förbundets stipendium
2008
Stiftelsen Petersenska Hemmet Scholarship
2008
Stiftelsen Markussens studiefonds stipendium
2007
Winner of Magenta Foundation’s Emerging Photographer’s Flash Forward
2007
Södrasmålands Kulturstipendium
2007
Stiftelsen Petersenska Hemmet Scholarship