Dede Johnston

Growing up in Vermont, near the Canadian border, Johnston developed an early passion for snow-laden alpine vistas. They are now an important theme in her photographic work. Ski resorts present an illusion of security in an inhospitable landscape, but in reality man remains vulnerable to powerful natural forces. Johnston’s series ‘Crowded Slopes’ plays on this tension between safety and danger. Human figures appear dwarfed by their surroundings, in images that recall something of 19th-Century ‘sublime’ landscapes