Al Sol: Introduction

by Constantine Manos

Stella Johnson’s photographs are poems weighted with grace, dignity, and compassion. Stella first forged her unique vision in simple Mexican villages where she became part of the fabric of daily life and turned ordinary moments into images of beauty. Her photographs reflect her caring approach to her subjects and their environment.

Stella is neither a photojournalist nor a documentary photographer. Rather, her work might be labeled personal documentary, for she brings to it an understanding and an approach which are deep and patient and truly personal. Her pictures transcend the subject matter.  She has lived with her subjects and her images reflect her love for them and, in turn, their love for her. In addition to her picture-taking skills, Stella is one of a dying breed of photographers who carefully develop their own film and make beautiful archival exhibition-quality prints in the darkroom.

From the villages of Mexico Stella Johnson has taken her particular vision to villages in Africa and Central America and illustrated the fact that even in the most isolated and distant of communities people are individuals and not generic types.  In each of these villages we see people often performing the same simple tasks, yet in Stella’s hands each image is a thing unto itself because of her respect for the individual and the specific moment.

Perhaps the world is a village and would be a better place for all if we could embrace the fact that the vast majority of people simply wish to live their lives with dignity and security and happiness, states of grace that are difficult to achieve in many poorer societies. Stella has shown us how few material goods it takes to achieve these states and how beautiful and precious they are.