Derek Johnston’s gorgeous black-and-white photographs have the ability to be both stark and sensual; to fully explore a vast landscape and to make careful note of the smallest, most precious detail; to stand in awe of nature and to willingly to embrace the glee of a child’s handful of wiggling, pond-caught newts.

Never far from rivers, Derek Johnston was born and raised at the mouth of the Niagara in Youngstown, N.Y. Taking up photography at an early age, Johnston moved west in 1994 seeking wild spaces and untamed rivers. Now, with a wife and four children of his own, Johnston lives minutes from the Frying Pan River in Basalt, Colo., where he serves as the program director and associate professor of the Professional Photography Program at Colorado Mountain College in Glenwood Springs. His work has been exhibited across the country including at the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago. He has been the recipient of a Colorado Council on the Arts grant in visual arts and is included in the critically acclaimed anthology, Photography’s Multiple Roles: Art, Market, Document, Science, published by the Museum of Contemporary Photography.

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