Tom Johnson

Tom Johnson's show - Lakewood: A Photographic Journal of a Sacred American Suburb - was delayed last month when the "phantom gallery" he planned to use was unexpectedly leased. He has rescheduled the opening to Saturday, July 10 at 6:00 p.m. The artist's reception will be a week later, on Saturday, July 17 at 5:00 p.m.Off and on for eight years, Tom Johnson has walked the neighborhoods of small houses and small lots where I live. He lives now with his wife in the Lakewood house he mother grew old in.

Tom has photographed international rockers and Hollywood starlets and TV personalities for magazines and other publications. He's also photographed his neighbors and - wandering further from home - the strangers he encounters in Lakewood. Their portraits record his intense interest in looking at Lakewood, something that Tom and I share.

Tom's diffidence and courtesy make these encounters work, although he's heard his share of puzzled words from those he's met while carrying his camera. He's brought most of his subjects around, though, so that even if some won't have their picture taken, they know that Tom isn't turning his camera on Lakewood or on them. He's just seeing what they see of their lives.

Tom and I have discussed his photographs over the years. He's a man of images; I'm made more of stories (and more than a little skeptical of photography). Our conversations have tried to piece together what each of us has found here.

I think you'll want to see Tom photographs. They'll be at Phantom Galleries LA, 350 East 3rd Street in Long Beach beginning on July 10.

The show was curated by Neil France and Liza Simone. (Phantom Galleries LA places temporary art installations in vacant storefronts throughout Los Angeles County.)

The images on this page are used by permission of the photographer.