Chris Johnson

President, Board of Directors
Chris Johnson

Chris Johnson studied photography with Ansel Adams, Imogen Cunningham and Wynn Bullock and has been the recipient of grants from the Rockefeller Foundation (w/Hank Willis Thomas); AICA Mellon Foundation Grant for Photography and Polaroid Foundation Artist Grants, among many others. Chris is the creator of the Question Bridge project and co-Director w/ Hank Willis Thomas of QuestionBridge: Black Males, Winner of the 2015 ICP Infinity Award. Chris has work in the collections of Smithsonian Institution, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Oakland Museum, and Center For Creative Photography. He is the author of The Practical Zone System: for Film and Digital Photography; currently in its 5th edition published by Focal Press in the West and Zhejiang Photographic Press in China. From 1999 – 2005 Chris served as Chair of Oakland’s Cultural Affairs Commission and from 1997 to 2000 he was Director of the Mother Jones International Fund for Documentary Photography. He is currently a tenured Professor of Photography at the California College of the Arts  and was a founding member and Vice-Chair of the City of Oakland Public Art Advisory Committee