Kristopher Johnson is a photographer based in Kingston, New York. He began working with photography at sixteen after discovering his father’s Minolta SRT 101 camera. Following studies at the School of Visual Arts in the mid-1980s, he worked as a freelance photography assistant and black-and-white printer for fashion, commercial, and still-life photographers. This experience introduced him to a range of photographic methods and took him on assignments internationally. His early independent work focused primarily on black-and-white studies of the nude.

In 2010, Kristopher and Florence Poulain founded Deep Tanks, a visual and performance art space and photographic studio on Staten Island. Operating until 2016, it became the setting for his portraits of artists and performers. His ongoing series Lumen Archetypes began in 2011 at Lumen, an international visual and performance art event, where he turned his attention to participating artists and visitors. The project developed into a sustained record of the event’s community, culminating in more than 600 portraits made within six hours in 2016. His mobile portrait studio has since appeared in bars, parks, private homes, and public events. After relocating to Kingston in 2016, Kristopher and Florence established a new 3,000-square-foot Deep Tanks studio.