Richard Johnson Studio

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Richard Johnson Studio

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Using large format digital photography, internationally-celebrated Toronto artist Richard Johnson documented the structures that shape Canadian cultures and communities.

07/31/2026

📸 Ice Village #178, Péribonka, Lac Saint-Jean, Québec, Canada, 2016.

The part you don't usually see: a tripod, a digital back the size of a paperback, and a couple hundred feet of snow between Richard and the huts he was photographing.

He worked almost exclusively in large format. The type of camera that makes you commit before you shoot. No zooming in, no cropping later. Whatever sits inside the frame is what you get, which means most of the work happens before the shutter ever clicks: choosing the spot, waiting for the light, waiting for nothing to move.

Two ways of looking at the same lake: one finished, one still being made.

07/28/2026

From the outside, Ice Hut #795 looks almost ceremonial: snowshoes and skis mounted like trophies, a string of buoys, a red and yellow flag catching whatever wind crosses the lake. Someone clearly wanted this hut to be seen.

Step inside, and none of that matters. Foil insulation, a stack of rods, a woodstove patched together from whatever was on hand, a yellow floor worn down to bare plywood on the path between the door and the chair. This side was never meant to be photographed. It was meant to keep someone warm.

Richard photographed both, because the whole story only shows up when you see them together: the face a hut shows the lake, and the room it actually is.

📸 Ice Hut #795, Rimouski, Fleuve Saint-Laurent, Québec, Canada, 2015.

07/21/2026

Green and yellow aren't colors that show up often on a lake in February, but here they are, standing up against a snowbank that's nearly swallowed the door.

Richard photographed it straight on, the way he photographed all of them, letting the drift of snow do what it does, creeping up one side, untouched on the other.

By July, there isn't a trace of that snowbank, but the hut still exists somewhere, waiting for the ice to come back.

📸 Ice Hut #587, Dalhousie, Baie des Chaleurs, New Brunswick, Canada, 2012.

07/15/2026

Summer feels like an odd time to think about ice villages, but Richard's photographs don't need winter to hold their own.

Ice Village #36 is currently on view at Bulthaup Toronto, where the framed 42' x 96' print from the collection hangs alongside their kitchen showroom at 280 King Street East. If you're downtown this summer, it's worth stopping in for the photograph and for the space around it.

📸 Ice Village #36, Beaverton, Lake Simcoe, Ontario, Canada, 2014.

07/09/2026

Books always seem to find good company 📕

Spotted by a friend this week: 𝙍𝙞𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙧𝙙 𝙅𝙤𝙝𝙣𝙨𝙤𝙣: 𝙍𝙚𝙨𝙞𝙡𝙞𝙚𝙣𝙘𝙚 — 𝙄𝙘𝙚 𝙃𝙪𝙩𝙨 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙍𝙤𝙤𝙩 𝘾𝙚𝙡𝙡𝙖𝙧𝙨 on the shelves of a bookstore in Huntsville.

06/30/2026

Most people see a root cellar. Richard saw a relationship between structure and landscape.

Rock.
Grass.
Weather.
Architecture.

Years later, what remains striking is not only the building itself, but the way it belongs to its surroundings.

The photograph becomes a reminder that place is never just a backdrop.

06/26/2026

Most city life happens at street level.

Richard looked up.

Ten stories above the sidewalk, he found a different landscape entirely.

Light. Reflections. Shifting patterns.

A performance happening every day, mostly unnoticed.

📸 Allegro Series: #9, #3, #1, #6, #8

06/12/2026

Richard often said that the more closely he looked, the more distinct each hut became.

What first appears repetitive begins to reveal endless variation.

A different door.
A different colour.
A different solution.

The details tell the story.

📸 Ice Huts: #899, #1028, #1025, #504, #421

06/04/2026

Millions of photographs of the Eiffel Tower already exist.

Richard wasn’t trying to make another one.

He became interested in the moments when the tower dissolved into reflection, light, and movement.

When something familiar becomes unfamiliar.

📸 Jeté series: Place du Trocadéro, Paris, France, 2019

05/06/2026

There are many ways to encounter a photograph. This recent essay offers one of them.

Published in PhotoED Magazine, photographer and writer Alan Bulley reflects on 𝘙𝘪𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘥 𝘑𝘰𝘩𝘯𝘴𝘰𝘯: 𝘙𝘦𝘴𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦—𝘐𝘤𝘦 𝘏𝘶𝘵𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘙𝘰𝘰𝘵 𝘊𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘢𝘳𝘴 through questions of order, attention, and care.

“Order can draw attention to detail and elevate the ordinary, a love that curates and cares.”

We’re grateful for this thoughtful reading of Richard’s work, and for the space it creates to see these landscapes and the lives within them.

Address

Toronto, ON
M5E0A6

Website

https://www.richardjohnson.ca/

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