Peter Johannes is a full-time artist and has made a living as an artist for more than thirty years, while operating a studio in Maine since 1975. In addition to Photography, he studied numerous disciplines such as etching, painting, jewelry design and sculpting in clay, metal and mixed media. His studies include, Haystack School, Ringling School of Art and Design, Volks University and Van Gogh Museum work atelier in Amsterdam, the Van Der Peil Print studios in Holland, Federico Perrone Studio and the Longboat Key Art Center. He also served as foreman in the sculpture studio Atelier Orkaan, and Public Relations/spokesman for internationally known sculptor Slavomir Miletic in the Netherlands. He conducts Art appreciation classes in the gallery setting, and in public schools.

Peter’s focus for the last few years has shifted completely away from the “Pretty Pictures” which he still sells to publishers for Calendars, Magazines and books. This “Artistic Osmosis”, as he calls it, began a number of years ago when he began to question if the camera was an instrument that would only play conventional tunes, or could it be used in alternative ways to produce images which reached people on an emotional level and spoke of Concepts rather than Objects? He thus began to convey with the camera a mood, or feeling, such as love or hate, or our struggle with time or transcendancy or loss and sorrow. Thus he found himself in the rarefied air of the “Conceptual Photographers”, which inhabit the fringes of the Photographic World to the delight of viewers and Collectors world-wide. Though a decidedly small fraction of photographers achieve this breakthrough, they enjoy more than a large measure of artistic acclaim and recognition by both Publishers, Art Critics and the public at large.

Peter says, “All of my Art images by definition tend to be Conceptual, it is the single thread that seems to run through all of the collections. There is always an undercurrent of the Surreal in most of my Art images. The “ Phantasmagoria” Series of surreal photos has been widely appreciated, and is one of my best selling Series. The effects in these photos are achieved through whatever means are necessary so that when one views these photographs, there must be an element of “wonder” and like a good magician the images must always pose the question, “How was that done?” If people can’t “see the strings”,I figure the image is as convincing as it needs to be. Though he uses a “dry darkroom”, in which the computer is a central tool, there are no computer generated elements in these images, they are all photographically based using both Film and Digital photos to make composite images which evoke an other-worldly texture and emotional context. From the response at Art shows, and Gallery exhibitions, I know that people are fascinated and moved by this work, which spurs my desire to further open to them, worlds that only exist in the artist’s mind.”

“I use as my motto the words of Sculptor Auguste Rodin who said, “The artist in representing the Universe as he imagines it, formulates his own dreams.... thereby he enriches the Soul of all Humanity”.......

Awards in the last year: Best of Show/ Art South Miami ----Third Place
Disney’s Festival of the Masters ---- Third Place
Suntrust South Miami Art Festival

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